


The Black Parade

by conventionalweapons (aconventionalweapon)



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Black Parade, Black Parade Era, Character Death, Death, F/M, The Black Parade
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 04:14:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 22
Words: 40,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5897821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aconventionalweapon/pseuds/conventionalweapons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when we die? Where do we go? Many have seen this dark procession, but only a few are caught up in the middle of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Repost from my old deviantArt account.

Dead. They were all dead. My whole family slaughtered in front of me, gagged and stabbed and bleeding on the floor. The white carpet my mother had tried so hard to keep clean was now stained by the deep burgundy liquid still slowly leaking from her own ragged flesh. The walls were decorated with the same deep red, splattered here and there in random dotted lines. I closed my eyes trying desperately to avoid looking around the room again, knowing I would only be greeted by the mangled corpse that had once been my father. His internal organs hung up like wreaths, some wrapped around his body like tinsel on a Christmas tree. It reminded me of the Silence Of The Lambs only this was far too real. 

"LOOK AT ME!" Strong fingers grasped my face and jerked my head up to look face to face with my parents' killer. Blood stained the man's skin, covering his hands and splattered on his face, a sadistic grin spread from ear to ear. "Pretty ain't it?" He hissed through yellow, crooked teeth and his breath was repulsive, reminding me of the old cheese I had found in the fridge last year and it stunk up the whole house. He snarled and abruptly swung his fist into the side of my face. I could hear let alone feel my lower jaw snap, pain shot through my face and down my neck. I howled in pure agony as his fist collided with my face again, this time breaking my nose. I felt the blood start gushing down my face as my eyes rolled back in my head. I could see fuzzy black dots begin to appear in my vision as his fist collided with my cheek repeatedly. "YOU AND YOUR FUCKING PARENTS!" He screeched as his swung his fist into my abdomen and I doubled over as much as I could in the chair, gasping and choking for air. "You're getting what you deserve. MY SON IS IN JAIL BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU FUCKING FAGGOT!" My eyelids started to flutter shut, the world was just a messy haze of objects now. I could see the black outline of the man throwing his arms around and then grab my shoulders, shaking me violently. His hand slapped me across the face again and I sputtered out blood, just now feeling the cracked ribs as I coughed. "You're not leaving yet. I'm going to make this one hell of a way to go. They're going to remember this! They'll remember why you died; they'll remember that you sent my son to jail! THEY'LL REMEMBER HOW YOU BEGGED TO DIE!" He had officially lost it. His eyes were wheeling widely around and his movements were erratic. 

"H-he deserved i-it." I spat out blood at his shoes, smirking up at him to the best of my ability. His eyes went wide as he growled in pure primal fury. His hand snaked into his pocket, retrieving a pocket knife. He grabbed my left hand and held it down to the armrest of the chair. I tried yanking it away, but in a flash his hand shot up, then back down and I felt the cold steel blade rip through the flesh of my hand, exiting and burying itself in the wood below my palm. I screamed louder than I even knew I could, tears rushed from my eyes, stinging the cuts from his fists on my cheeks. 

"My son, deserved a good life. He deserved to be free! YOU! YOU PUT HIM IN JAIL!" Spit flew out of the man's mouth as he fired off every curse word he knew, he honestly looked rabid and I would have laughed if I wasn't in so much pain. I looked down at my hand, seeing the blade stuck through it and blood gushing out, making sickening squishing sounds when it was moved in the slightest bit. 

"He killed that girl…he fucking deserved it…" I choked on small amounts of blood mixed with bile, tears, and spit. "J-just like y-you deserve t-to die…" My vision was blurring again and he clearly noticed cause I received an almost instantaneous slam to the side of my face. His eyes were dilated and he was sweating as he gripped the handle of the blade, yanked it upwards and ripped it from my flesh. The wound tore open wider as he did, eliciting another powerful scream out of already bruised lungs. 

"Scream all you want. The neighbors are taking a nice nap, fast asleep for at least a day or so. I've been waiting for this. I've been waiting to get revenge and now here I am. HAHAHA AND I'M ENJOYING EVERY BIT OF IT!" Yep, definitely psycho. He cut the ropes from my hands and chest, yanked me up by my wounded hand, squeezing, and then watched my blood run down his fingers and arm, transfixed by the red fluid as I groaned out in pain. He spun me and pushed me forwards, sending me tumbling to the ground, my legs totally useless as all circulation had been cut off from being bound to the chair, the blood came slowly making its way back to my toes. "GET UP! MOVE!" I scrambled to my feet, but he kicked me back down, laughing maniacally as he did. The wild eyed man then yanked me up by my shirt and shoved me forwards again. I caught the wall before I fell and watched as my blood smeared against the white paint. He pushed me towards the kitchen and I quickly realized that the back wall was on fire. Mom had been making dinner when the doorbell rang, the then delicious food turning into a fiery blaze. I started to sob at the fact that my parents had been alive a little over an hour ago and we had all been about to have a nice family dinner together for the first time in months. The man pushed me towards the fire and then grabbed my right arm at the elbow, keeping it straight. He wrapped his other arm around my chest and I started bawling as I realized what he was going to do. He thrust my hand into the flames and held my arm so I couldn't escape. The fire wrapped around my hand and I felt my skin start to burn, screeching out as my flesh started to be eaten away by the flames. 

"STOP IT! STOP! AAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" I thrashed in his grasp and he was just laughing, holding me in his tight grip, my small body totally useless against his football stature. He finally yanked me back from the flames and shoved my arm under cold water, causing the decimated flesh to sting with a whole new pain before it subsided. I looked at my arm, skin literally fell from it and into the sink and I threw up, still the same mixture of blood and what felt like acid. His arm drug me backwards and towards the bathroom. He threw me into the corner and started filling the tub. This was it. I was dead. I cradled the torn flesh that had once been my arm and just curled down into the corner. I watched the water rise to the top of the tub and watched as the mans arms came down and grasped my shoulders. He drug me to the tub and lifted me, quite easily and dropped me down into it. The water rushed over my face and I choked on the cold liquid before I lifted my head and found air again, sputtering and gripping the tub with my left hand. The man's meaty hand wrapped around my neck. 

"I have quite enjoyed our time together. Goodbye Iero." He shoved my head underwater and I thrashed and kicked, aiming for the drain and hoping it would pop up like it normally did but it decided to betray me this one time and I felt my lungs burn for air and then I felt nothing but the tingling sensation as my body started to die. I glanced up through the water, seeing the man through the ripples of liquid, his face distorted but that obvious grin still there. What caught my eye though was a figure behind the man. I could tell the person was not much taller than I because of how close his head was to the light. Then I realized the light from the fixture seemed to avoid him, he was cast in shadow even though he was standing in the middle of the bathroom. His hair was snow white, reminding me of last Christmas and how my parents had ruined it with their incessant fighting. He wore what looked like a marching band outfit, black with silver accents, I couldn't make out a face as my vision blurred and my lungs collapsed, the water rippling over my face was the last thing I saw, but the last thing I heard sent a final shiver down my spine. 

"Goodnight Frank. I will see you soon." A smooth voice rang clearly in my head as I blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

**10 years earlier.**

"Mr. Toro?" I jumped when I heard the small voice squeak out from in front of me. There was a small five-year old kid sitting in the chair opposite of me, clutching an all too big guitar in front of him; looking up at me nervously through his dark brown bangs. 

"Sorry kiddo, spaced out there. Okay let me teach you an E chord." I placed my fingers on my guitar, enjoying the feeling of the cool metal sliding easily under my hard earned callouses. I placed my index finger on the G string on the first fret, followed my middle finger on second fret on the A string, and my ring finger on the second fret of the D string. I looked up at the little boy, his hazel eyes watching my fingers closely before he easily and swiftly copied me. He was a smart kid and I could tell that he was going to be a great guitarist one day. "Okay now strum it." He ghosted the pick over the strings of his guitar once before pressing against them and strumming methodically up and down. "Good job!" I clapped him on the shoulder and he beamed that adorable smile of his. The door to the studio opened and his mom walked in, walking up behind him. He looked up at her and smiled and she just smiled back, petting his hair. "He's doing really great Mrs. Iero." 

"Really? That's good to hear Mr. Toro." Little Frankie stood up and carried his guitar to its case, and laid it gently down on the soft red fur lining it. He closed it and then looked to his mom, it being all too heavy for him, but he refused a smaller guitar. She smiled and picked it up and he grasped her free hand. "What do you say Frank?" He looked up at her then back at me and I smiled at him. 

"Thank you Mr. Toro!" He giggled. 

"I told you Frankie you can call me Ray, but you're welcome." I stood up and his mom shook her hand loose from him to quickly shake mine. 

"Same time next week?" She smiled and turned to leave, looking over her shoulder at me. 

"Of course!" I waved as she stepped out of the building, taking little Frankie with her by the hand. I smiled and started gathering my things together and packing acoustic and electric guitars into their cases. I heard the little jingle of the bells on the front door. "WE'RE CLOSED!" I shouted and turned my head to see a man walk in, his face blocked in the shadows of his hood. I stood up slowly as he started to walk towards me. His arm suddenly flung out in front of me, bringing the shiny tip of a gun to my head. 

"You move. You die." He growled. "GET IN HERE!" He shouted and more men darted into the shop, the last one locked the door behind him. I stood there frozen, not moving an inch in any direction as I heard the men raid the shop. I took a shuddering breath and the gun raised a bit higher. The men tromped through the store, I could hear the sound of glass shattering. They came around the corners with cases, guitars, amp, and everything else pertaining to a musical instrument. My heart sank watching the equipment being stolen out of the studio but I was glad, glad that Frank was gone and safe. I was glad that I was the only one here. "We're going to leave quietly and you're not going to say a word. Right?" He hissed and the word 'snake' came to the forefront of my mind. 

"You won't get away with it." I whispered, not knowing what possessed me to say anything at all. The gun was pushed up under my chin forcefully. 

"What was that?" I could almost picture the forked tongue hiding behind his teeth. I didn't answer and he jammed the gun harder against my throat. "I ASKED YOU A QUESTION!" He growled, his blue eyes glinting with rage. 

"I- I said you won't get away with it." I whimpered, keeping my voice as low as it could possibly be. 

"COME ON LETS GO! JUST LEAVE HIM!" One of the other men shouted from the doorframe and the man in front of me turned his head to look at him. I took the opportunity and grabbed the gun, ripping it from his hands and throwing it across the room. He turned back to me and threw a punch into my gut, I doubled over but quickly recoiled with a punch to his face. He avoided it, narrowly but he did. He grabbed me around the waist and tackled me to the ground, throwing punches as soon as I landed on my back. I couldn't avoid them, I threw my hands up and grabbed his shoulders trying to hold him away, but he was stronger. I tried to roll us and it worked but only landed me back under him, still receiving punch after punch. He finally stopped when I slumped on the ground, thinking if I just gave up he would just leave. He stood up and yanked me on to my feet and threw me against the wall, leaning down quickly and grabbing hold of his gun again. He pressed it against my chest and I immediately started crying, praying that I would just be able to go home after all this, that I would live to see my family again. But I guess it wasn't meant to be.

The click of the trigger shocked me out of my thoughts. I looked into the man's eyes and he just smirked and turned away, heading towards the door. I stood there for a moment before feeling the sudden rush of pain. I looked down and started to hyperventilate, seeing the deep red fluid gush out of a hole in my shirt, reminding me vaguely of a waterfall. I fell to the floor, clutching the wound on my chest, applying pressure to the best of my ability. The fluid slipped through my fingers, running over my knuckles, across the back of my hand and down, flowing onto my white shirt. I gasped and choked for air as I felt a thick fluid start making its way up my throat, eventually sputtering out of my mouth as I gagged. My eyes wheeled around the room, looking for a way to contact someone but there was nothing. I would die here on the hardwood floor of the studio surrounded by empty guitar stands and cases. I started to close my eyes, just wanting the pain to go away when I saw something. 

There was a man standing there, dressed in what appeared to be a black parade uniform, the silver accents glinted even though he was entirely cast in shadow. He took a step towards me, his boots making a small thump as he did and then he kneeled down beside me. "P-please…h-help." My words slurred as I started to lose consciousness. I reached out with my free hand and he gently took hold of it. His fingers were smooth and cool as ice. I looked up at his face and he stared down at me, a small smile spread across his lips. He was pale, deathly pale, only slightly darker than the hair on his head. 

"Ray Toro." He breathed, his breath didn't even have a smell to it, I could only feel the air hit my face but no smell or anything to accompany it. I nodded as my vision darkened around the edges, my eyelids slipping closed. "Welcome to The Black Parade." My eyelids shut and I was enveloped in darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

**3 years after the second appearance.**

"Hey! Hey Frank! Wait up!" Every morning. Every morning for the past three years this tall…well taller than me…kid with glasses would come running up to me and follow me around like a lost puppy. Michael? I think that was his name, I think everyone just called him Mikey though. I just gave into it after a while, accepting the fact that I couldn't get rid of him. I turned and just acknowledged his presence by waiting for him to catch up. He stopped beside me, catching his breath. "Hey Frank? What's up?" He smiled cheerily at me, completely opposite of how he was with other people. Normally, he'd shy away from others and be super quiet, hardly ever uttering a word, but for some reason he wouldn't shut up when he was with me. 

"Not much." I sighed and continued down the hall towards my first class, coincidentally the same one that he was in. 

"Hey did you do the homework for history?" He continued the conversation in an instant. 

"Nope." The word felt heavy in my throat, probably just because I was tired and didn't really feel like talking. 

"Again? Frank we just started school and you're already gonna start off failing history?" He chortled and I just rolled my eyes and kept pushing my way through the crowd. 

"I guess so…" I said, shrugging once we were in a clear area of hallway. 

"I can't wait till we start talking about The Black Parade." He was practically bouncing off the walls but only what he said got my attention. 

"The Black Parade? They're really gonna let that legend be discussed in a history class? That's a first." It was normally a subject that was never to be brought up in class, kind of a banned topic everywhere really. Too many people had claimed to see the same thing when they had near death experiences. They'd all heard music playing, enticing them to come closer, and then they'd see a parade marching down a desolate street. The weird part was…they were all victims of crimes. They'd all been shot, stabbed, or raped and left to die. People got sick of hearing it, including government officials so the topic was banned. 

"It is NOT a legend." The sudden seriousness in Mikey's voice startled me and I glanced over at him. He was glaring straight ahead, all traces of his previously peppy mood were gone. 

"Dude chill out. It's just some creepy story that somebody made up." He glared at me, the gaze sending a shiver up my spine. 

"Yeah I'm so sure. That's why the GOVERNMENT banned it right?" He rolled his eyes and visibly relaxed and I focused back on where I was going. We worked our way through the next crowd of people and then emerged near our classroom. I opened the door and held it for Mikey and he smiled and went in. We sat down in the back of the room and I immediately took my usual position, slumping down on in my chair as far as I could go and closing my eyes. After a few minutes bell rang for class to start and I felt a small punch to my arm and I squinted one eye open and glared at Mikey. He just folded his arms and glared back. 

"UGH FINE!" I sat up in my chair and lazily looked up at the front of the class where a short, bald man, Mr. Giles, was starting his lecture on the importance of Shakespeare. After ten minutes of that I flopped down on my desk and fell asleep, much to Mikey's dismay. 

I woke when the bell started to ring incessantly again, slowly sitting up and stretching. 

"You slept through the whole class…again." Mikey sighed indignantly, gathering up a shit ton of papers that I realized were the same ones cluttering my desk.

"Is this all homework?" I groaned, throwing the papers haphazardly into my backpack, glancing at my exposed fingertips on my right hand, seeing the disfigured skin. I sighed and glanced at Mikey, he was looking at my fingers just as much as I was but he smiled sympathetically and I just stood up and started to make my way out of the room. 

"Frank, wait come on!" I heard Mikey run up behind me and felt his fingers on my exposed left arm, his grip was icy like he had just been standing in a freezer. His hand quickly recoiled away and he shoved it in his pocket. "Can-can we please talk about it?" 

"No." People started to disappear from the halls, signaling that the next class was going to start soon. "I have to get to class Mikey. I'll see you later." I couldn't talk about what happened…I just- I didn't want to relive it anymore. I was reminded enough by the scars littering my body and the physical therapy sessions I had to go to for my right arm. I didn't want to talk about when I really didn't have to, but I didn't blame Mikey for asking because I never really did tell him and he was the only person that was even remotely close to me anymore. I turned back to apologize to Mikey for just snapping. 

I turned the corner and saw him standing there, looking out the window and talking to a shorter figure next to him. The other person was wearing dark blue jeans and a black hoodie, the hood pulled up on his head and pulled forward as far as it could go. I stopped by the wall, not wanting to interrupt their conversation. The bell rang and normally Mikey would be the first one in class but he was still standing here, talking to this other guy. Something looked odd about them though as in they were standing right next to the window but the light from the sun wasn't touching them and their shadows were nowhere to be seen. I glanced down at my own shadow and looked back at them. They were still whispering to each other, obviously a serious conversation by the stoic look on Mikey's face. I could hear their voices start to drift down the now vacant halls. 

"How much longer do I have to wait? I hate being here, I just want to go back." Mikey grumbled, using a darker tone of voice than I'd ever heard. 

"Just a while longer Mikey. Just watch him all right? He got lucky once, but he won't be next time." The smaller guy turned his head to Mikey and quickly hugged him. "I'll see you later Mikes. Get to class." I saw Mikey roll his eyes and then they went wide as he noticed me standing here. 

"Frank!" He gasped and the shorter man turned his head only slightly before stalking away but I caught a small glimpse of his face, it was cast in shadow even where the light should be touching him. It was…strangely familiar but I couldn't quite place where I had seen him before. Mikey came towards me, glancing back at the figure that was walking in the other direction. "What are you doing? Shouldn't you be in class?" He grumbled, grabbing my right arm rather harshly and I quickly yanked it away from him. 

"Shouldn't you?" I spat back and he sighed and nodded. 

"Yeah I guess. So let's go." He wasn't smiling, not a normal occurrence for Mikey Way, a lot today. 

"What's up with you? You aren't really being yourself at all today." I whispered and he looked at me raising one eyebrow and I glared back at him. 

"Uh…just a rough morning that's all." He mumbled before stalking off ahead of me. I watched him until he rounded the corner then glanced back behind me at the other guy. He was just standing there, watching me. 

"GO TO CLASS FRANK!" He shouted and I suddenly felt like a ton of bricks had slammed me in the chest because the voice was strikingly familiar. Smooth just like…like…the guy from that night. My head started swimming and I started seeing ripples in my vision as my thoughts drifted back to that night. I felt my head hit the ground and I blacked out.


	4. Chapter 4

"Frank? Frank? Come on Frankie wake up! I think you should go Gee, he's waking up…well…kinda." My eyelids fluttered open but my vision was still blurry. I could make out the vague outline of two people wearing black standing beside my bed. 

"Relax Mikey. I'll see you soon. Watch him." My body suddenly felt like all the energy was being drained out of me as one of the two outline's disappeared and my vision focused more with his absence. 

"Mikey?" I croaked out, realizing my voice was a bit hoarse and I had a sore throat. 

"Welcome back to the land of the living sleepy head." He chuckled, smiling lightly and stuffing his hands into his coat pockets before sitting down beside me on the bed. 

"I-I had another episode didn't I?" I whispered glancing up at him. 

"Yeah…you were screaming pretty badly this time. Something about a guy in a parade jacket." His eyebrow raised and I rolled my eyes. 

"Oh shut up! Jeez! Enough with all this Black Parade stuff! You're a little obsessed Mikey." He just smirked and chuckled a little, looking down at the floor. 

"I guess because it gives me something to believe in." He whispered, staring off into space. 

"Earth to Mikey. Hello? Come in Mikey!" He turned his head and play punched me in the arm. I just giggled, slapping my hand over my mouth as a nurse walked by and laughed because of my crazy giggle. 

"Seriously though Mikes…what happened? How long have I been out?" I sat up, my limbs were stiff from lack of movement, telling me it had at least been a day since I passed out. 

"About a week actually." Mikey said it like he had just been reading my thoughts and I raised my eyebrow at him. He pointed to a chart near my bed and it had the days counted off on it. 

"A week? That long? Wow…that sucks. Where's my grandfather? Has he been here?" Mikey's eyes went wide and he looked away like he was ashamed. "Mikey?" He looked back at me, his face completely void of any tell tale emotion, his eyes boring into mine. He put a hand on my shoulder, keeping eye contact. 

"Okay then…who were you talking to?" His eyes softened for a moment but returned to the harsh stare instantaneously. 

"I wasn't talking to anyone." He spoke softly, his lips barely moving as he did and I just gave him the 'are you fucking serious? I'm not stupid' look. "Sleep Frank." He said and I just sat up and swatted his hand away. 

"I'm not going back to sleep I think I've done that enough thank you." I snapped and he just kept staring. 

"I wasn't asking, I was commanding. Sleep. Now." He placed his hand on my shoulder again and I began to protest but my body was suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion. My eyelids started to flutter closed, all the while my mind was protesting and trying to keep me awake but once my eyelids closed…everything went black. 

[Mikey's P.O.V.]

I removed my hand from Frank's shoulder and stood up, quickly stuffing my cold fingers back into my pocket as I turned to leave the room. I walked around the curtain and looked to my left, pausing for a moment. There was a white sheet draped over a still body, the contours of the body giving rise to dark shades of grey on either side of the sheet. I walked up beside the bed and gently pulled the sheet down off of his face, revealing an elderly man with grey almost white hair. His expression was soft due to the fact that he had died peacefully in his sleep. The door opened and a young nurse walked in, seeing me and heading my direction.

"Sir, you can't do that!" She barked and I just turned my head and smiled softly at her and she froze, staring back at me as I casually walked up to her. 

"I'm sorry. I won't do it again and you won't remember me. Are we clear?" She nodded mechanically, only her eyes shedding light on her true emotion…fear. I put my hand lightly against her cheek. "Goodnight." 

"Goodnight." She spoke softly. I willed her to sleep and in an instant she collapsed into my arms and I gently laid her on an unoccupied bed. I looked back to where Frank was sleeping peacefully and smiled before dissipating into thin air. 

"Welcome back." A slightly shorter, white blonde twenty four year old smiled as I appeared in front of him. "We missed you." I just smiled and walked forward, as I did my clothes changed shape and color, fitting my body more snuggly than the ones I had been wearing lately. I was standing in a black jacket, reaching down past my pant's pockets, now, form fitting, silver accents running across its front and a silver medal, called a Brunswick Cross hung lightly on my right chest, attached with a pin and black ribbon. I also wore snug fitting black pants with a silver stripe down the sides. My hair darkened and shortened and my glasses had faded away. I adjusted the collar of my jacket before clasping my hands together behind my back. 

"Good to be back." I whispered, not entirely believing anything I said anymore. My answers had been half hearted for longer than I remembered. 

"He's finally agreed to join our performance Mikey." Gerard, my brother, beamed as he turned and walked down a desolate street, dirt and ash and remnants of buildings lay in waste, charred by and an unseen fire. I followed after him until we reached a platform, elegantly lined with red roses and white ones forming the shape of a skull at the float's front. I stepped up behind Gerard and watched as he took his place at the front of the float, grasping a black, glinting microphone stand in his hands, running his fingers against its smooth surface. 

"It's not a performance Gerard. We're taking lives…its nothing to celebrate." I spoke as I reached out and brushed the thick silver strings of my bass, picking it up and slinging the strap over my shoulder. I pulled some of the strings, enjoying the deep sound it made and the vibration that radiated through the instrument. 

"We aren't taking lives Michael." I glared up at him, not agreeing with the use of my full name. "We're saving the ones that were taken too early from life, the ones who died violently. It is a celebration because we are giving them a new home Mikey. We're saving them. It is something to celebrate." His gaze turned to something behind me and I turned to see a curly headed man step up on to the platform. He was dressed in similar attire to Gerard and I, the accents varied in different spots though and his jacket hung to his belt but remained open, revealing a black shirt underneath. He looked frightened and I didn't blame him, he had passed just ten years previous, quite young for someone like us. We were the musicians, the ones who were doomed to carry out the task of collecting the souls of murder victims, rape victims…any victim really because we had been killed ourselves. Anyone with as much pent up anger as us would be a musician, but so far it was only us four. I looked up to the man who had joined us twenty eight years ago. He was blonde, light beard, and had a small silver lip ring, reminding me of Frank. Bob Bryar was his name. He never spoke, not a word. Not once. We ourselves were unsure as to how he died because he was so drawn into himself. He soundlessly adjusted the black drum set in front of him and glanced at me before quickly averting his eyes. "Mr. Toro, glad you could join us." Gerard stepped up the tiny step onto our level and held his hand out. Toro gently took his hand and they shook, Gerard more happily than him though. He led the man to my left and a trail of black smoke lingered at their heels before darting out in front of the man and slowly taking shape. A shiny black guitar now rest in front of him and Gerard motioned for him to take it, but he was hesitant. "It's alright Ray. Play it." Ray picked up the guitar, throwing the strap over his shoulder and looking to me. I smiled encouragingly and his fingers rested on the frets. He let loose in a flurry of notes, and I was mesmerized watching his fingers fly up and down the frets. He stopped and a small blush appeared on his face and he nervously fiddled with the tuning. Gerard beamed at me and I just looked straight ahead, hearing voices gathering closer as all the people we had "saved" gathered round. Gerard stepped up to his mic and Ray stepped closer to me. 

"Wait, I don't know what I'm doing." He whispered and I just placed a hand gently on his shoulder. 

"You will…it'll come to you." I placed my fingers on the frets of my bass and Bob hit the first notes on his drums and I joined in, hearing Ray join after a few notes and it sounded so natural. Gerard began singing and the atmosphere seemed to spark with energy. 

_Some say, now suffer all the children_  
_And walk away a savior,_  
_Or a madman and polluted_  
_From gutter institutions._  
_Don't you breathe for me,_  
_Undeserving of your sympathy,  
Cause there ain't no way that I'm sorry for what I did. _

_And through it all_  
_How could you cry for me?_  
_Cause I don't feel bad about it._  
_So shut your eyes,_  
_Kiss me goodbye,_  
_And sleep.  
Just sleep. _

__

_The hardest part is letting go of your dreams._

_A drink for the horror that I'm in,_  
_For the good guys, and the bad guys,_  
_For the monsters that I've been._  
_Three cheers for tyranny,_  
_Unapologetic apathy,  
Cause there ain't no way that I'm coming back again. _

_And through it all_  
_How could you cry for me?_  
_Cause I don't feel bad about it._  
_So shut your eyes,_  
_Kiss me goodbye,_  
_And sleep.  
Just sleep. _

_The hardest part's the awful things that I've seen._

_Just sleep.  
Just sleep. _

_JUST SLEEP!_  
_JUST SLEEP!_  
_JUST SLEEP!  
JUST SLEEP! _

_Wake up!_  
_Wake up!_  
_Wake up!  
Wake up!_


	5. Chapter 5

"WAKE UP!" My eyes shot open, immediately hurting from being suddenly bombarded with light. I stared at the white ceiling until my eyes focused and I could see the tiny little patterns in the roofing. 

"Jesus, if you'd slept any longer I would have started CPR." I turned my eyes to see an old weathered face, smiling down at me and a broad grin made its way across my features. 

"Hey old man." I smirked and he just rolled his eyes at me, settling himself on the edge of my bed as I slowly sat up, being mindful of the IV still stuck in my arm. 

"Hey kiddo. Glad you're awake." He patted my leg as I rubbed my eyes, blinking away any traces of sleep. "You've been asleep for a while, a few days since Mikey came to see you at least. Think you can stay awake this time?" I giggled and nodded, pulling the sheets down and swinging my legs over the side to sit beside him. 

"I'm guessing I can't use this as an excuse to miss school tomorrow right?" I smiled sheepishly and he pretended to be mulling it over before he smiled widely at me. 

"Sure, just this once…but only cause tomorrow is Saturday." I let my jaw drop and I gently slapped his arm and huffed, causing both of us to erupt in bouts of laughter. There was a slight knock on the door and I turned around to see a familiar lean figured, dark blonde standing in the doorway, pushing his glasses up a little further on his nose before making his way to the bed. My Grandfather turned to see Mikey approach us and he smiled and clapped his hand on Mikey's shoulder once he was standing in front of us. "Nice to see you again Michael!" 

"Nice to see you again Fr-Mr. Iero." I raised my eyebrow at Mikey. He looked worn out, his hair was disheveled and his clothes looked like they were tossed on with his eyes closed, the buttons not matching up with the holes, leaving an extra button and an extra hole at the top of his button down. 

"What'd you go through a wind tunnel or something?" Mikey raised an eyebrow at me and I motioned to his hair and clothes. 

"Oh uh…no just…running late today I guess. Got a lot on my mind." His voice dropped to a whisper and he sighed then looked back up and smiled half heartedly. 

"Are you sure you're okay?" He nodded quickly and patted my shoulder. 

"I just came by to see how you were doing. Glad to see you're awake. I'll…I'll see you on Monday Frankie. Bye!" He practically ran out of the room and disappeared around the corner. I looked to my grandfather and saw that he was just as confused as I was. Mikey was never late, he never called my grandpa Frank, and he was never so careless about the way he looked. 

"Well that was strange…poor kid's probably got a lot on his plate if he's that off of his game." I nodded and a nurse appeared in the room. She hurried about and quickly removed my IV after telling me that the doctor had deemed it safe for me to leave. I was handed a pile of clothes by my grandpa and I hurried to the adjoining bathroom, holding the back of the hospital gown closed as I did. Stupid gowns. I unfolded the pile of clothes and dug through it, smiling at the fact that my grandpa knew me all too well. I tugged off the gown and quickly slipped into a pair of red boxers and then grabbed my black skinny jeans and tugged them on. I burst out laughing when I picked up the pink studded belt from the pile. My grandpa had bought this for me when my back was turned and we both sniggered when I put it on. I slid the belt through my pant's belt loops and buckled it before grabbing the plain white t-shirt from the pile and pulling it on as well as the single fingerless skeleton glove onto my right hand. I tried to ignore it...the skin covering my right arm…I just…I couldn't. The scars were too noticeable not to see so I quickly diverted my eyes to the mirror. I fixed my hair, brushing it out of my eyes and smoothing it down before emerging from the bathroom. My grandpa's eyes lit up at the sight of the pink belt and I just rolled my eyes. 

"Nice choice." I chuckled, throwing the hospital gown down on the bed before pulling my socks on and slipping my feet into my worn pair of black converse and haphazardly tied them. 

"Ready to go?" Grandpa Frank stood up and put his hands on my shoulders, looking me right in the eyes, his skin crinkling at the corners of his eyes as he smiled. I couldn't help but smile back and then wrap my arms around him. 

"Love you Grandpa." I whispered into his shoulder and he hugged me back, squeezing lightly. 

"Love you too grandson. Come on, let's go home." I followed my grandfather out to his car, climbing into the passenger seat and buckling my seatbelt before resting my head lightly against the glass. I stared at the hospital in the rearview mirror and sighed, closing my eyes and allowing my memories of that year flood back into my head. 

_I was dead when they arrived on scene. I was underwater, unmoving…lifeless. I was a corpse essentially. They had yanked me out of the water and thrown me to the floor, where I eventually woke up after being shocked with a defibrillator multiple times. I could remember staring up at the ceiling, feeling nothing but pain…searing pain. I moved my fingers on my right arm and immediately wished I hadn't. I screamed out in agony and the paramedics rushed to wrap my arm securely to prevent further movement. I kept my other hand still, quick to remember that a knife had been through it not too long ago. "Hey kid? You still with me?" A young paramedic flashed a flashlight in my eyes to check my vitals and I quickly nodded._

_"H-how…" I whispered, hoping he'd get the idea of what I was trying to ask for my lungs felt like they were on fire._

_"That kid right there found you, he said he heard fighting when he was walking by and saw the fire from the kitchen. You're lucky kid, super lucky." I turned my head in the direction he gestured and saw a thin, dirty blonde teen talking with a policeman, his glasses rested on the end of his nose. He saw me looking at him and flashed a brief smile. He headed towards me and kneeled down, out of the way of the paramedics but close enough._

_"Thank god you're alive…thought I was too late." He let loose a sigh, sounding like he had been holding it in for a while. He visibly relaxed and I just nodded at him hoping he'd get the message that I was glad he'd found me. "Uh…no problem, Frank." My eyebrows rose up. Did I know him? How'd he know me? I'm pretty sure I've never seen him before…maybe the paramedics told him my name? I had no ID on me though! He hesitated before grinning brilliantly and then standing up and walking out of the bathroom. My eyes drifted shut again._

_I woke up in the hospital a week later. Staring at the white ceiling of the hospital room, my right arm wrapped in thick gauze and my left hand as well. My grandfather was sitting at the end of my bed, his face in his hands. I gently nudged him with my foot and his head snapped up and he turned and smiled at me, his face dripping with tears. "God, thank the lord you're alive." He brushed my hair from my face and choked back sobs._

"Frank?" My head snapped up and I glanced over at the driver's seat and saw no one was there. I turned my head to the right and saw my door was open and Grandpa was leaning down and looking at me. "Haha we're home Frankie, c'mon get out of the car." I unbuckled my seatbelt and clambered out of the car and into the house, heading straight to my bedroom where I flopped down on my bed and groaned loudly. 

"Fuck. My. Life."


	6. Chapter 6

[Mikey's P.O.V.]

I dangled my feet off the edge of the float, head in my hands, as it slowly moved along the never-ending street. Ray was sitting in silence beside me, picking absently at the fabric of his pants, completely silent. I looked ahead to where I could see the white blonde hair sticking out amongst the sea of black. Gerard was walking amongst the countless dead again, conversing and making it seem as if everything was all right. I sighed and rolled my eyes before flopping back on the float with an exasperated sigh to accompany my dull thud. 

"Bored?" Toro spoke up. 

"No…just sick." I breathed, draping an arm over my eyes. 

"Of?" Ray was pretty good at knowing what I was feeling, something I'd discovered over the past week of him being with us. 

"This…this existence. I wish…sometimes I wish we could just move on, not be stuck here for the rest of eternity. Fifty years of this is enough. I've had it." I huffed and sat back up, rubbing my eyes and then looking ahead and watching the parade progress down the road to an uncertain destination. 

"Fifty years?" I looked to Ray, his eyebrow was raised in question. I smiled lightly and turned to look back ahead of me. 

"Yeah…I've…Gerard and I have been doing this for eighteen years…ever since we were killed." I could practically feel Ray's gaze bore into my side. I knew he wasn't going to stop staring at me until I told him what happened to us. "Alright okay…just stop staring at me like that." I felt his gaze soften and we both relaxed. "Right so fifty years ago Gerard and I were at our house... 

_"GERARD!" I shouted down the stairs, where Gee's bedroom lay at the foot of the steps. I heard a muted groan and I smirked before running down the steps and banging on the door. "GEE COME ON DINNER'S READY!"_

_"Uuuuuugggggggghhhhhhh." He groaned on the other side of the door before there was a click and the door swung open to reveal a black, tangled mess of hair framing a pale white face._

_"Haha come on big bro, dinner is ready." I slapped his shoulder and he just elicited another groan. Gerard speak for "fuck off." I turned and darted up the stairs, listening to the loud thud of each of Gerard's steps as he trudged up the stairs. I walked into the kitchen where our parents were setting the table and filling up glasses with water. I took my seat to the left of my mom and when Gee finally made it into the kitchen he sat to our dad's right so that we were across the table from each other._

_"So boys, what'd you learn in school today?" Dad began as he started passing the bowls of vegetables and mashed potatoes around the table and laying good sized portions of chicken on each of our plates. I raised an eyebrow at my dad, contemplating how I would ever eat this much. "Hello?" He looked at Gerard then me._

_"I learned that if you fall to sleep in Mrs. Alverez's class you get slapped with a ruler." Gerard mumbled and I stifled a laugh, whereas our dad just glared angrily at Gerard. My dad looked to me then._

_"I-I…I uh…learned about the uh…uh…" My dad just sighed and I looked to Gee and smirked, eliciting a smile from him._

_"Boys, school isn't to be taken lightly. You don't pass, you repeat until you get it right." My dad took on his serious tone and thankfully my mom interjected._

_"So! I heard that the police found a lead on that Ripper case." We all froze and looked at my mom, leave it to her to bring up a topic such as that._

_"Oh?" My dad answered, looking a little paler than usual. "What'd they find?"_

_"They said that they found out that he has a family, with kids most likely, and that he works in town. They found a worker's safety card near one of the bodies and it didn't belong to the victim." I watched my dad's expression, he seemed to become paler by the second, his lips drawing into a straight line. I saw that Gerard was watching him too._

_"T-that's n-not…ehem…that's not too much to go on. Half of the town has worker safety cards and half the townsmen have kids. Doesn't seem like they have gotten much closer, in fact it seems like this guy will actually get away with it." He was furiously cutting his meat as he spoke, sawing through piece after piece. He was acting weird, and I caught sight of a bead of sweat forming at the top of his forehead._

_"Dad are you alright?" I squeaked out and his eyes snapped up to glare at me._

_"I'M FINE!" He snapped and I jumped in my seat, as did Gee and Mom. My dad's face was full of fury as he glared at me, knife in hand pointed at me across the table. He threw his utensils down on the table and stood up, the chair scraping backwards against the wooden floor. "GO TO BED! NOW!" He growled and I quickly obeyed, scurrying around him and practically running to my room. I slammed the door behind me but it never clicked. I turned to see Gerard holding the door then quickly slipping into my room and locking it behind him._

_"What the hell was that all about?" Gee said, glancing at the door._

_"I-I dunno! I just asked if he was okay!" I started to cry and Gee quickly came and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug._

_"Hey, he snapped for no reason. This isn't your fault." I pulled back from Gerard and nodded, wiping away my tears on the sleeve of my shirt and then sitting down on my bed. Gee sat beside me, staring at the floor with his hands clutching his knees. Then it started, the screaming and shouting._

_"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" I heard my mother shriek._

_"WHAT?! THAT KID HAS GOT TO STOP ASKING QUESTIONS!" My dad's gruff voice rang out through the house and I flinched, having never heard his voice raised._

_"HE JUST ASKED YOU IF YOU WERE ALRIGHT!" My mom screamed back. "What is wrong with you? You haven't been yourself lately…Mikey has a right to be worried because…well I'm worried about you too."_

_"WELL STOP!"_

_"STOP WHAT?!"_

_"STOP WORRYING! I'M FINE!" This wasn't like him, this wasn't how our dad was. He was nice! He wasn't like this!_

_"NO YOU'RE NOT! YOU NEED HELP!" That's when I heard it, the thud of a body being pushed into something, followed by a sound that would haunt me for the rest of my life. An ear piercing shriek rang out and my eyes went wide, flicking quickly to Gerard who had moved to the door, leaning against it. He stared wide eyed back at me and then quickly unlocked the door and ran out into the hallway._

_"GERARD!" I squeaked and got up, only managing to make it to the doorframe before my knees locked up in fright._

_"MOM!" I heard Gerard cry out. "WHAT DID YOU DO!?"_

_"Fucking bitch deserved it." A familiar but somewhat foreign voice emanated from the kitchen. "Now it's your turn, you son of a bitch."_

_"NO!" I heard the scramble of feet against the wood and the thud as someone ran through the kitchen into the living room. "MIKEY!" I froze, my heart clenched and my lungs closed up. I tried to move, tried to run to the sound of my brother's screams, but I couldn't. My body betrayed me and I couldn't move any further than where I already was._

_"G-Gerard?" I whimpered when the house fell silent. I forced myself to move forward towards the living room where the commotion had come from. "G-Gee?" I stumbled down the hallway, my heart pounding faster and faster with each step. Squish. I froze. I looked down at the source of the sound and nearly screamed, a hand covering my mouth from behind me._

_"Shhhhh." My father's voice purred near my ear. "They were in the way Michael…you know that." His hand slipped from my mouth and he slowly moved in front of me. His clothes were stained red, practically from head to toe. "They were always in the way, always separating the two of us."_

_"W-what did y-you d-do?" I choked out, watching his every movement. A horrid smile spread across his face as he took my hand and led me in to the kitchen. A pool of burgundy liquid spread across the floor. I traced it to a familiar shape and broke down into tears. "M-m-mom…" I whimpered, slowly making my way to the blood drenched form that had been sitting next to me not moments ago._

_"She was always holding you back Michael…she didn't want you to be anything…she just wanted to keep you holed up forever." My eyes flicked up to my father._

_"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I shouted, anger flaring up in every part of my being. I stood up, fists clenched. He flicked out a knife at his side, the slight ring of the weapon as it flung out seemed to echo endlessly._

_"MICHAEL!" He shouted, knuckles turning white around the handle of the blade._

_"YOU KILLED HER! YOU BASTARD!" I barked, clenching my fists tighter. He came at me and I turned and darted the other direction. I ran into the living room and tripped over something left on the floor. I put my hands down to push myself up but nearly upchucked when they sank into a thick fluid. I looked down and saw my white shirt soak up the fluid, staining the fabric bright red. I looked back at the object I tripped over and I let loose a scream. "GERARD!" The tangled mess of black hair lay in the puddle of blood. I crawled over to him and flipped him over, yelping when I saw the ugly open wound stretching from ear to ear across his neck. "GEE! NO! GERARD COME ON WAKE UP!" I started gently slapping his cheek, but nothing. "GERARD!" I screamed, my vision blurring due to my tears. His eyes were open, their gleam had disappeared…he was dead. My brother…Gerard. I turned when I heard laughter behind me and then I turned back to Gee, pulling his body close to mine._

_"You just don't understand Michael…none of you understand. I had hoped you would join me son…but you're with them I see. Goodnight Michael." The snarl erupted right near my ear and then I felt only searing pain. I looked down at my chest, coughing and choking as some liquid rose in my throat before I started to sputter it out. There was a silver tip, sharp and serrated, sticking out my chest. Blood flowed down from the wound and I just clutched Gerard's body closer as I felt the blade be ripped from my flesh. I fell forwards, my head landing on the ground and Gerard's resting near mine. I felt the blood drain from my body out through the wound, spreading on the floor around me. "G-G-Gerard…" I sputtered before I felt my body slump against the floor and dark spots started to cloud my vision. I looked at Gerard one more time before closing my eyes and quietly passing away._

I looked at Ray after finishing my little story and he just sat there, like a deer in the headlights. 

"Wow…I-I'm so sorry Mikey…" He whispered and I just shrugged and smiled at him. 

"It's okay now Ray…though I hate this existence, at least I still get to see Gerard. Plus that bastard got what he deserved." 

"He did indeed." I turned my head and looked down at the familiar face that I had grown up with. "Should we play another song brother?" He smiled up at me before I stood and held my hand out to him. He took my hand and I pulled him up on to the float. 

"Let's play." I smiled and Gerard beamed back at me. He strode over to his microphone stand and took it gently in his hands. Ray stood up, jogging past me and over to his guitar, which rest quietly next to mine. I picked up my bass, relishing in the feeling of the instrument under my fingertips. I glanced up and watched as Bob materialized at his drum set, a gift he had. He could vanish into thin air if he wished, far better than my ability if you ask me. I could force sleep upon anyone and torment them with dreams if I wanted, or plant thoughts in their head. My job was essentially to make Gerard's easier. He was Death himself, essentially. Gerard's touch was deadly to any mortal person, he avoided contact at all costs…it wasn't blood that flowed through his veins anymore. It was poison. I had seen him do it before…kill someone…he merely brushed his fingertips against their skin and their skin started to turn black, starting where he touched them then slowly radiating outward until it reached their heart. Still, he was my brother. He's Gerard and to me that will never change. 

_Yeah!_

_And if your heart stops beating_  
_I'll be here wondering_  
_Did you get what you deserve?_  
_The ending of your life_  
_And if you get to heaven_  
_I'll be here waiting, babe_  
_Did you get what you deserve?_  
_The end, and if your life won't wait  
Then your heart can't take this _

_Have you heard the news that you're dead?_  
_No one ever had much nice to say_  
_I think they never liked you anyway_  
_Oh take me from the hospital bed_  
_Wouldn't it be grand? It ain't exactly what you planned._  
_And wouldn't it be great If we were dead?  
Ohh dead. _

_Tongue-tied and oh so squeamish_  
_You never fell in love_  
_Did you get what you deserve?_  
_The ending of your life_  
_And if you get to heaven_  
_I'll be here waiting, babe_  
_Did you get what you deserve?_  
_The end, and if your life won't wait  
Then your heart can't take this _

_Have you heard the news that you're dead?_  
_No one ever had much nice to say_  
_I think they never liked you anyway_  
_Oh take me from the hospital bed_  
_Wouldn't it be grand to take a pistol by the hand?  
And wouldn't it be great if we were dead? _

_And in my honest observation_  
_During this operation_  
_Found a complication in your heart_  
_So long, 'Cause now you've got (now you've got)_  
_Maybe just two weeks to live  
Is that the most the both of you can give? _

_One, two, one two three four!_

_LA LA LA LA LA!_  
_LA LA LA LA LA LA!_  
_LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!_  
_Well come on,_  
_LA LA LA LA LA!_  
_LA LA LA LA LA LA!_  
_LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!  
Oh motherfucker, _

_If life ain't just a joke (LA LA LA LA LA!)_  
_Then why are we laughing? (LA LA LA LA LA LA!)_  
_If life ain't just a joke (LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!)_  
_Then why are we laughing?_  
_If life ain't just a joke (LA LA LA LA LA!)_  
_Then why are we laughing? (LA LA LA LA LA LA!)_  
_If life ain't just a joke (LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!)_  
_Then why am I dead?  
DEAD! _

This was us now. We are and forever will be, The Black Parade.


	7. Chapter 7

[Frank's P.O.V.]

"FRANK! FRANK!" FRRAAAANNNNKKK!!" I rolled over on to my stomach, groaning. "FRANK! GET UP! YOU'RE GONNA BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!" My grandfather shouted again from downstairs. 

"OKAY I'M UP!" I shouted back, sighing as I forced my body into a sitting position. "Uuggghh…." 

"Oh come on sleepy head, school isn't that bad." 

"AH!" I shouted, jumping to my feet and spinning around to the source of the voice. "DAMNIT MIKEY!" I took a few deep breaths, trying to regain my composure. He was just sitting in the corner of the room in my desk chair, calmly leaning up against the wall. He smirked at my reaction and stood up, walking over to my bed and sitting down on the end of it. 

"Your room is a fucking mess Frank." He said calmly as I just stared at him and then the windowless walls. 

"How the hell did you get in my room?" I completely ignored his statement. He just looked at me with one eyebrow raised and then pointed to the door. "Okay, does my Gramps know you're here?" His eyes widened a little bit and then he shook his head no. "So you snuck into my house…how?" 

"I just pulled the garage open and came in through there. I…I just needed to get away for a little while and your place was the first thing that came to mind." I just kept staring at him, realizing that his glasses were not in their normal spot at the end of his nose. 

"Contacts?"

"Huh?" He looked at me questioningly and I motioned to his eyes. 

"You're not wearing your glasses." He looked confused for a moment, then thoughtful, and then he just shrugged. 

"Yeah, got em a while ago but I hate wearing them." He stood up and walked over to my dresser and I watched in horror as he dug through my clothes. 

"Uh…Mikey…what are you doing?" I squeaked out as he opened my underwear drawer. He tossed a pair of boxers at me, hitting me in the face, followed by a pair of dark blue skinny jeans, a Misfits shirt, one of my skeleton gloves, and socks. At the end I was covered in my own clothes. 

"Dude, you really need a shower and we're going to be late already so hurry up. I'll be downstairs." I watched him leave the room, gawking at him. 

"That was…weird." I shook my head then stood up and grabbed all the clothes that he'd chucked at me and headed to the bathroom. I didn't look that bad! My hair was a little messed up, but I didn't look bad. I curiously raised my arm and smelled myself, instantly wishing I hadn't. I smelled faintly of smoke and coconuts from my shower a few days ago, but there was that pungent smell of sweat along with them and it was a revolting mixture. I stripped off the boxers I was wearing and turned the shower on. I waited for the water to heat up and then cautiously stepped in, making sure it wasn't too hot. "Ah…just right." I sighed as the water flowed down my body, relaxing all my muscles. I stood there for a few minutes, feeling the water soak every inch of my being before I reached down and grabbed the shampoo bottle. I paused, looking at my outstretched arm. It was disgusting to look at…the skin was misshapen and scarred all the way from my fingertips to my shoulder blade. I had always wanted to get tattoos but that wasn't possible anymore, for this arm at least…it was too damaged. I had one tattoo though, the only one I had ever been able to get because I got it behind my parents' backs. It was a black scorpion, resting on the right side of my neck, just below my jaw line. My parents freaked out so bad when I came home with the tattoo, I was actually grounded for three months for it. I was going to get more as soon as I moved into an apartment but…that dream was thrown aside when my parents were murdered. I held up my left hand, seeing the white line across the back of my hand and an identical one on my palm. I shuddered and quickly dumped a pile of shampoo into my hand to cover the scar. I worked the shampoo through my hair, more in the overgrown black faux hawk than the only slightly shorter sides. I used to have a black faux hawk with short blood red hair on the sides but…I'd let it grow out slightly before dying my whole head black. I wasn't a very…colorful…person after that night. I wanted to hide, not stick out like a sore thumb. 

"FRANK! COME ON MAN! WE'RE ALREADY AN HOUR LATE!" I jumped when I heard Mikey's voice shout from the other side of the bathroom door. 

"OKAY I'M COMING!" I quickly washed the shampoo out and dumped conditioner on my head, quickly working that through and washing it out. I jumped out of the shower, shutting the water off and throwing a towel around myself. I dried off as fast as I could before throwing my clothes on, well everything except the shirt. I opened the bathroom door and ran across the hall to my room. I went to my dresser and grabbed a long sleeved, burgundy and black striped shirt. I pulled it on and then pulled on the single skeleton glove that Mikey had thrown at me, I can't remember where I put the other one…oh well. I grabbed a pair of black Converse and yanked them on after I threw my socks on. I looked around the room, making sure I didn't miss anything. 

"Belt?" I jumped again, turning and expecting to see Mikey but it was my Grandpa, holding up a black studded belt. I smiled and grabbed it from him, looping it through the loops and buckling it. 

"There done." I smirked and he just rolled his eyes. 

"Yeah, only took you an hour." He chuckled and I slapped him playfully on the shoulder before grabbing my black backpack, with some band buttons attached to the straps, and headed down the stairs where Mikey was standing at the door waiting. 

"Finally!" 

"Oh shut up." I strode past him into the garage and got in the driver's seat of my car, an old black Mustang that definitely needed some work. Mikey hit the garage button then got in the passenger seat while I turned the key fifteen times before the car rumbled to life. I backed out, waving at my Grandpa then turned and drove towards school. 

On the drive we passed by the hospital and I started thinking about the day that Mikey was there the first time that week, how he put his hand on my shoulder and basically demanded that I sleep and I did…I had instantly fallen asleep, but against my body's will. I glanced over at Mikey, he was staring blankly out the window. I noticed his hair was slightly darker than usual, and there were dark rings around his eyes like he hadn't been sleeping well. He just…he didn't look like the happy Mikey that was always around before I went to the hospital. Didn't act like him either. "Mikes?" He turned to look at me, smiling briefly. 

"What's up?" His words were slow, he sounded completely wiped. 

"I wanna ask you something…" His eyebrow raised up and he nodded. "The first day you were at the hospital with me…this past time I mean…you told me to sleep and I didn't want to, but…somehow…it felt like you made me actually fall asleep. It felt like you were actually making me physically tired even though mentally I was wide awake, but only when you touched me." His eyes widened only slightly before he relaxed back in his chair. 

"Frank, I couldn't make you fall asleep if I wanted to. I was only telling you that you needed some rest and apparently you were sleepier than either of us knew. It was just a coincidence." He chuckled and I just stared at him cause the little laugh seemed half assed. 

"Uh huh…okay…" I trailed off, turning my focus back to the road. I pulled into the parking lot of the school and we clambered out of my car, trudging up the steps into the building where we sat down on a bench and waited for the next bell to ring, signaling that passing period had started. Mikey wasn't talking…at all. Normally if we had free time like this he'd be blathering about something, most likely music or The Black Parade, with which I believed he had an unhealthy obsession. 

"What do you think of them?" Mikey spoke up, quietly. 

"Who?" I turned to look at him. His eyes seemed like they were glazed over, he didn't blink and there wasn't the slightest hint of movement…if I hadn't known better I would have thought he was dead. 

"The Black Parade." He whispered and I just sighed and rolled my eyes. 

"Mikey they aren't real, I dunno how many times I have to say that. They're made up!" He just glanced at me before closing his eyes. 

"Pretend for a little bit that they were real. Pretend that they really existed and took in the souls of murder victims, rape victims, suicide victims, etc. What would you think of them? Would they be considered bad people or would you see that they were really just trying to help?" He was being dead serious and I just exhaled and gave in. 

"Alright I'll pretend that they exist for a little bit. I'd probably hate them in all honesty Mikes. They were rumored to be there at every victim's death, but what really gets me is…why would they just stand there and watch them die? Why wouldn't they help them? Y'know save their lives instead of just sit idly by? Plus, it was also rumored that they had gifts, like abilities and from what I think I remember…they weren't meant to help people. One of them could kill people with a single touch! I don't see them as being the friendly type…more like demons in human form. That's what I would think of them IF they existed." Mikey just stared at the floor and I thought I saw a hint of a tear. "Mikey? You okay?" He quickly glanced up at me and I could see the buildup a tears around the base of his eye. He quickly brushed his sleeve across his face, wiping away all traces and smiled at me. 

"Y-yeah…you're probably right." He nodded before patting his knees and standing up. "W-well…I-I'm gonna just head to class now…see you in third period Frank." He strode off, shoving his hands into his jacket's pockets, head down. He looked devastated…like what I had said offended him. I sighed and made a mental note to apologize to him next period for bashing his obsession, but he did ask me what I truly thought of them and well...that's what I thought. An image flashed across my vision, I could see water rippling and make out a white blonde figure standing behind an all too familiar man. Goodnight Frank. I jumped and shook my head when I heard the voice again, causing the image to fade. People were shoving past me in the halls, dashing to their next classes. I sighed and headed to second period.


	8. Chapter 8

I trudged along towards third period after suffering through Algebra, my mind whirring with the over complex methods in math. I looked up as I neared the class and saw Mikey walking towards the same class from the other direction. His head was held low and a slightly shorter figure, with the hood on their hoodie pulled up, walked beside him. I stopped beside the lockers opposite of the door and waited for Mikey to get closer. He glanced up and his eyes connected with mine before he looked at the person beside him and gently bumped him with his elbow. They kept walking and Mikey looked like he was nervous approaching me. 

"Hey Mikes." I smiled and he just nodded in response, glancing to the person beside him. "Uh…who's your friend?" Mikey's mouth opened like he was going to say something but no words actually emerged. The hooded figure's hand reached up and yanked the hood off their head, revealing a mess of shoulder length black hair, a pasty white complexion and hazel eyes. He smiled at me and held his hand out. 

"I'm Gerard, Mikey's older brother." Mikey's eyes widened at Gerard before nervously glancing at me. I shook Gerard's hand and watched Mikey silent freak out. 

"Nice to meet you…didn't know Mikes had a brother…" I glanced at Mikey silently saying 'what the fuck man?' He just sighed and shrugged. 

"Sorry…guess I never really talk about my family." He whispered and I turned my gaze back to Gerard. He looked familiar, at least his face did, but I couldn't quite place it.

"So are you in our class now?" I tried sparking up a conversation in the awkward silence between the three of us. 

"Yeah, I've been held back a couple times and I wanted to start fresh at a new school so here I am. Looks like we're all classmates. Should be fun! I've heard a lot about you from Mikey and now I've had the pleasure to meet you." Mikey shot Gerard an angry glance and I raised an eyebrow in question, but Gerard just smirked. "I'll be starting tomorrow though, gotta make sure everything's together, y'know transaction records and shit." I smiled and Gee smirked. 

"Sounds good! I'll see you tomorrow then." I said happily, he seemed like a cool guy. Wonder why Mikes never mentioned he had a brother…now that I think of it I had never even heard about Mikey's parents or anything. Hell I'd never even been to his house! Gerard waved and stalked off down the hall towards the main office. I turned and walked into class, taking a seat at the very back in the furthest corner from the teacher's desk. Mikey sat quietly beside me, taking his notebook out and ripping a few pages from the binding before stapling them together with the stapler that was being passed around. He passed them to the center isle and glanced at my empty desk before rolling his eyes. 

"Seriously Frank you gotta do your homework." He sighed and I just flopped my head down on the desk with a loud thud. 

"I was in the hospital…doesn't that count for anything?" I groaned. 

"Alright class, as promised we will be sharing scary stories today seeing as Halloween is this coming weekend." My jaw dropped to the floor. 

"Its this weekend?" I whispered to myself. 

"Yeah Frank, Halloween has been on the same day every year." Mikey chuckled, sounding like his usually peppy self after seeming quite out of it as of late. 

"It's my birthday…I'll be eighteen." Mikey patted me on the shoulder. 

"I've already got your gift and I know you're gonna love it. YOU may have forgotten about your birthday but I never will." I smiled at Mikey and he smiled back. 

"You know you didn't have to get me anything, I mean you've already given me a gift that'll last a lifetime." He raised his eyebrow at me and I pulled my sleeve up a little on my right arm and he mouthed an 'oh.'

"That was different Frank, that was a life or death situation and I'm just glad I got there in time." He whispered looking back to the front of the class and judging by the look on his face this was the end of the conversation. A good twenty minutes into the class and I was practically asleep on my desk. People really didn't know how to tell scary stories…it was pathetic listening to them. 

"IERO!" I jumped at the sound of my last name and sat up sluggishly to look at the teacher. "Stop sleeping in my class! It's your turn to tell a scary story." He smirked, knowing I hadnt come up with one cause I hadnt been here to know the assignment. I sighed and glanced around the room, looking for some sort of inspiration. My eyes landed on Mikey then I noticed a pale strip of flesh peeking out between my glove and sleeve, revealing the scarred tissue. I knew what I was going to tell them. No one but my grandfather and Mikey really knew what happened that night, they were the only two to know the gory details. I got up and headed to the front of the room, successfully avoiding an attempt by a jock to trip me. I faced the class and cleared my voice. 

"Three years ago…" 

[Mikey's P.O.V]

They were enraptured. Completely overwhelmed by the story Frank was telling. I could see it on their faces that they had never thought the "freak" in the back of the class could actually be a cool guy. He had them right where he wanted them, telling them everything he told me three years ago. He didn't leave a single thing out, he described the scene and the murderer to the best of his abilities. I could picture it all over again, the blood covering the walls and floors, the mutilated bodies of his parents…the sight of his body laying under the surface of the water. I watched Frank as he took his shirt and gloves off to show them the evidence that this was no story, I saw the scars that covered him. He was destroyed…though he was smiling…this person standing before me was both mentally and physically destroyed. Everyday I could see the anguish in his eyes when he would catch sight of his scars poking out from under his sleeve, I could see his desire to just disappear completely. 

"I've never even told Mikey this part, but as I was being held under the water…I looked up and through the ripples I saw a man standing behind my killer. He had snow white hair and he was wearing a black marching band uniform. He said two words to me…two words that have been in my head ever since that night. All he said was 'Goodnight Frank.'" My eyes widened at Frank. Snow white hair…Gerard. I got up out of my seat and burst out of the classroom. That fucker was going to get it! I let my rage consume me and my clothes and hair changed as I ran down the hallway of the school. With a scream I jumped myself, which is essentially like teleporting, to the Black Parade. Gerard turned and cocked his head when I stormed up to him. I grabbed the front of his jacket and yanked him close to my face. 

"YOU FUCKING LIAR! YOU TOLD ME YOU WEREN'T THERE! THAT THERE WASN'T A THING YOU COULD DO ABOUT IT! YOU FUCKING LIED!" I screamed and pulled my free hand back and slammed it into his face. He just stared at me, calmly, and then lowered his head…remaining silent. "I HATE YOU GERARD! HE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO GET HURT!" I turned, stomping past an open mouthed Ray and an always calm Bob before disappearing back into the real world again. I found myself standing in a park, a place that had been familiar to Gerard and I in our childhood. I slumped down against a tree, not bothering to disguise myself. Frank wasn't supposed to get hurt…he was her son after all…


	9. Chapter 9

She was Gerard's friend. Linda was our neighbor for a long time back when we were still alive and I remember she'd always come over at around three just to hang out with Gerard. I had come to know her as a friend over time and we were a pretty tight group of three. Gerard and I became increasingly protective of Linda as we grew up, treating her like she was our sister and if anything dared harm her we would kill them. I'd started to see her as more than a friend about a month before our deaths, but she was in love with someone else. Gerard. I saw the way she looked at him, but he didn't think the same of her, to him she was like his little sister, nothing more and nothing less. She was eighteen at the time of our death and, unbeknownst to our parents, five months pregnant. She had a boyfriend that Gerard and I never knew about until the day she ran into our bedroom one night, five months before, at midnight, bloodied and beaten. She'd been raped that night by this man that she trusted. It made Gerard and I furious. We hugged her for hours, rocking her back and forth and smoothing her hair in an attempt to calm her. I could see the fire in Gerard's eyes, the way he glared at the floor I knew his mind was coming up with some horrendous plan to make the man pay for what he'd done. We never got the chance though. We were murdered. 

I remember waking up and standing up, looking around the room just to see my own bloody body laying at my feet. I leaned down to touch it but I couldn't.

_"Mikey?" I turned to see Gerard, standing over his own body next to mine in the living room. His hair was different, short and snow white. He was wearing what appeared to be a black parade uniform and upon looking down I saw I was wearing something similar and my glasses were missing but I could see perfectly. "What happened?" He whispered and I just stared at my body, watching the blood seep further across the floor._

_"He killed us Gerard…Dad killed us."_

_"But we're still here…" Gerard muttered and leaned down, gently touching the pale skin of his own cheek. "I never knew I looked so broken…"_

_"What are you talking about?" I glanced at him before my eyes flicked back to my own face._

_"Come on Mikes…we both know I was messed up." I didn't say anything, knowing it would just raise an argument and right then all I could think of was if Linda was all right._

_"Let's find her." Gerard spoke up and I looked at him, our eyes meeting and holding each others gaze._

_"How did you know I was thinking about her?"_

_"I-I don't know." Gerard shrugged and I looked quickly around the room, running to the phone and quickly dialing 911 so someone would find our bodies before our father could hide them, not that he would…he was too lazy for that. Gerard and I left the house, not really caring about our deaths at the moment for some reason. It felt like all the weight on our shoulders had been lifted, but our minds were focused on one thing and that was Linda. Would she be able to see us? We practically ran to her house, climbing the tree to the second story balcony before sneaking around to the side to her balcony door. She was sitting in her desk chair, leaned back as far as it would go, caressing the small bump where her baby was currently taking up residence. She happened to look up and her eyes went wide. She flew up out of her chair and started backing away from the door. She was going to scream. Without thinking I was suddenly behind her, my hand clamped over her mouth as she struggled against me. I was surprised I could even touch her, that she could even see us._

_"Linda! Linda! Shhh! Please!" Gerard begged quietly, having some how also gotten into the room without opening the door. Her struggles lessened and I let my hand slip from her mouth, making sure she wouldn't scream out._

_"Gerard?" She whispered and he nodded, sighing in relief. She turned her head to look at me. "Mikey? How the hell did you guys get in?" She looked to the door then looked back at us._

_"Uh…I don't know…" I whispered, just as confused as she appeared._

_"What'd you do to your hair? What are you wearing? Mikey where are your glasses?" I should have predicted twenty questions._

_"I dunno, I dunno, and I dunno." I replied and she just gave me the 'don't lie to me or I'll kill you' look. "I'm not lying Linda… I don't know what happened to our hair, clothes, or my glasses for that matter. I'm just glad you can see us." She glared at me._

_"Of course I can see you two! Why wouldn't I be able to?" She snapped._

_"Cause we're dead." Gerard blurted out and she just gave him a bewildered look._

_"Uh…what?"_

_"You'll probably find out soon…Linda, our father just murdered us. We're dead." Gerard stared into her eyes and she just stared back before bursting out laughing._

_"Nice one Gerard." She turned and sat down on the bed, her right hand curling under her small baby bump._

_"We're not lying Linda." I sat down beside her and watched as her right thumb lightly stroked the slight swell._

_"Uh huh that's why I can see you two perfectly right?" She just rolled her eyes and smiled, right as her bedroom door opened and her mother walked in, tears rolling down her eyes and the phone clutched to her chest. "Mom? What's wrong?!" Linda got up and went over to her mother, wrapping her arms around her mother's slim shoulders._

_"Linda, the police just called…its about your friends…I'm so sorry…your f-friends…Mikey and Gerard…they're…they're dead." She broke down and sobbed on Linda's shoulders, who was now completely rigid. After a half hour of her mother sobbing and apologizing for something that definitely wasn't her fault, she finally retreated from Linda's room. Linda herself just remained frozen on spot._

_"Linda?" Gerard spoke hesitantly and her head turned slowly to look at us, displaying the tears that were silently making their way down her cheeks. He walked up to her and she practically fell forward into his chest. She cried loudly, choking on her own sobs and soaking the shoulder of Gerard's jacket._

_"H-how c-can y-you b-b-be d-dead...I-I can see you and f-feel you…y-you can't be d-dead…" She choked out between sobs and all I could do was watch as the girl that I had fallen for clutch Gerard's jacket like he was the only thing on her mind._

_"I don't know Linda…I don't know…" A small tear slipped down Gerard's face before quickly fading._

We hung around Linda's house for the next year, not knowing exactly why we were still around or what we were supposed to do with our ghostly existences. We watched Linda's stomach grow over the last four months of her pregnancy and she had tried to involve us in it as much as possible by grabbing our hands instantly any time the little baby within her would move and asking us to help her around the house with chores when her mom was gone. She made us feel like we were still alive during the day but when she fell asleep at night, the realization would slowly creep back over us. We were by her side when she went into labor and was rushed to the hospital and we were there to see her little boy be born. She had smiled so widely when she held his little body for the first time. She already had a name for him and I had a feeling it had something to do with his father. Frank Anthony Iero was born on Halloween. We watched him grow up until he was eight months old before we suddenly vanished from the real world, winding up in some city that had been burned down it appeared. There was a float sitting in the middle of the street, completely empty, decorated in roses forming a skull on the front. We approached the float and as we did a black mist swirled around the top of it and from that mist a microphone stand and a sleek black bass formed. I remember touching the heavy strings of the bass for the first time and relishing in the deep vibration caused by them. Gerard had held the microphone in his hand a long while before raising it to his lips. He sang for the first time ever and it was beautiful, but the words were lost as soon as he uttered them. 

We never remembered that first song, not a single word he had sung. From then on we learned to travel to and from that weird dimension where the blackened city rest. We watched Linda and little Frankie closely and watched as she found another man and married him just a few years later. We watched as little Frank grew up and turned into a teenager, started smoking, got his first tattoos, and played his guitar. By that time a man named Bob Bryar and many others had joined us in the strange realm, listening to the nameless songs we played. 

The worst moment of my life though was when I learned of Linda's murder…my thoughts quickly drifting to Frankie. I had immediately jumped myself to their house, running through and practically falling to my knees when I saw Linda's lifeless corpse lying on the floor. I heard the swish of water coming from down the hall and forced myself to move away from her body and down the hall. I pushed the door open and saw Frank lying motionless under the water. I grabbed his shirt and yanked him from the bath, performing CPR as quickly as I could until he started to sputter. I willed the phone in the kitchen to dial 911 and stayed by his side until the paramedics arrived and his eyes opened.


	10. Chapter 10

[Frank's P.O.V.]

After Mikey had run out of the room yesterday the class was in an uproar. They were all waiting to see him come stumbling in to the room and watch the events unfold. The teacher had been furious and called the principal, letting him know that, and I quote, "Mikey fucking Way" had ditched his class. I sat at my desk in the back, chin resting in my right palm as I flicked a pencil up to the top of the desk and allowed it to roll back down before repeating the process. I glanced up and around the room. Some people were glaring at me, others gawking at my exposed scarred skin, some watching the door, and others were just laughing and talking away like nothing had ever transpired yesterday. I sighed and looked back down at the pencil on my desk, giving it one last pathetic flick before it rolled off the top of the desk and disappeared on to the floor. 

"Ugghhh…." I moaned and let my head fall to the desk with a dull thud just as the classroom door squeaked open. I turned my head on the desk to look at the person entering, hoping it would be Mikey to relieve some of my boredom, but it was Gerard. I sat up instantly, watching him walk to the front of the class, all eyes on him. 

"Name." Mr. Giles barked at Gerard who just grinned and stated his name. I watched Mr. Giles' eyes fly wide open and look nervously up at the person standing before him. I raised an eyebrow in question but his gaze quickly faded and he cleared his throat. "T-Take a seat anywhere." Gerard turned and looked around the room before his eyes landed on me and with a slight smirk he came and sat down beside me in Mikey's usual spot. 

"Mikey usually sits there." I said lazily as he sat down. 

"Well, Mikes won't be here today so I think its alright." He smiled and yanked a notebook from his black, frayed messenger bag. He opened the cover to reveal a fantastic world drawn across the inside cover, spanning over on to the next page. 

"Whoa did you draw that?" It looked like an abandoned city, black and grey with slight dustings of red and white here and there. The buildings were broken, glass falling from some of the windows and a parade of people marching down the center of the street. A float was in the middle of the people, intricately decorated in red and white…uh…I think roses. There were four people on the float, each fully drawn and colored down to the last glint on the buttons. One of them reminded me very much of Mikey and another looked disturbingly similar to my old guitar teacher, but the one that frightened me the most was the white blonde standing at the very front, microphone clasped tightly in his hand. The black marching band outfit, the white hair, the gleam in his eyes…it was him. The man I'd seen in my house that night. I looked up at Gerard and he looked completely oblivious to the grimace on my face. 

"Uh yeah, I drew it a while ago. This is kinda why I was held back heh…I drew in every class instead of doing the work therefore not passing. Looks like this year will be no different." He shrugged and flipped the page, concealing the parade with a drawing of a dead girl lying on an operating table. I made myself forget the drawing and engross myself in the pages upon pages of doodles. There were vampires, werewolves, the Frankenstein monster, everything from any horror or monster movie I had ever seen.

"You're really good. I could never draw shit like that." I leaned back in my chair away from Gerard, but keeping my eyes on the pages as he continued to flip through them until he landed on an empty page. As soon as the pages stopped flipping my mind raced right back to that first drawing. Was it just a coincidence? Did Gerard see that man too in his life? It was a parade…a parade wearing black and silver. The Black Parade? Was he into that as much as Mikey was? "So uh…Mikey normally blathers on about this 'Black Parade,' you into that too or is that just a Mikey thing?" Gerard looked up from the sketch he was currently working on and smirked at me. 

"Yeah kinda. That drawing on the first page was of my rendition of The Black Parade…I dunno it just kinda fascinates us I guess. Could be just the fact that they're said to take peoples lives in an instant without ever being caught. Doesn't that interest you?" He smirked, resting his pencil down on the desk and sitting back in his chair. I leaned forward, crossing my arms on the desk and resting my chin down on them. 

"I dunno…not really. In all honesty that whole thing kinda…great I sound like a fucking wimp for saying this but…it scares me. I don't know if you know the whole story about what happened to me, but that…that guy you drew on the front of the float. I saw him…I saw him when I was dying that night or at least someone like him." Gerard didn't seem shocked by this at all, a smile actually played on his lips before he quickly changed his expression to a forced expression of shock. I glared at him slightly. He was a weird dude and I honestly got the feeling like he was hiding some big secret from the world when he looked at me like that. I turned my eyes away from him and stared blankly across the desk before closing them and sleeping the rest of the class away. 

[Mikey's P.O.V.]

"So little Frank Iero was your best friend's kid? Wow…you guys have been around for a little while then." Ray fiddled with the tuning of his guitar as we talked quietly. Gerard was probably in class right now, toying with Frank, but I couldn't be with him right now. I was pissed off at my brother and wanted to keep a good distance for a little while, which would probably only end up being the rest of today. I couldn't stand to think that he was sitting next to Frank right now, acting all buddy buddy after what he'd done to him years ago. He fucking stood by and watched Frank get killed. "He was so talented…even at a young age." I turned and looked up at Ray. 

"Oh yeah?" I smiled and he sat down beside me, dangling his feet off the edge of the float.

"Definitely. He put every ounce of himself into playing guitar. He was definitely going somewhere, but now that I know he hasn't done anything with his talent I'm kind of disappointed. He could play faster than any other kid I taught, even most of the older kids, and he learned so quickly it was mind-boggling. His mother was a very nice woman." I smiled at Ray and nodded. 

"Yeah, she really was." A swirl of smoke appeared in front of us, spiraling upwards towards the sky before fading to reveal Gerard standing there. I narrowed my eyes instantly and got up and walked to the back of the float. 

"Come off it Mikey. You're being ridiculous." Gerard snapped as I picked up my bass. I turned and glared at him. 

"Am I? Is it so ridiculous to care about him Gerard? I think its pretty damn ridiculous that you sat there while he died! YOU JUST SAT THERE AND WATCHED FRANK DIE!" I spat and threw my bass at his head, but lucky for him he ducked in time for it to sail inches over him before disappearing in a swirl of black mist and reappearing on its stand beside me. "JUST DON'T TALK TO ME GERARD! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" I growled and jumped myself to the sidewalk just outside Frank's house, quickly changing my clothes and hair to my usual school appearance. I walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. The lock clicked a minute later to reveal Frank's grandfather. 

"Oh Michael, good to see yah!" He pulled me into a tight embrace and I just chuckled and returned the gesture. He released me, leaving his hand on my shoulder, and pointed up the stairs. "Frank's in his room doing some homework, but you can head on up so long as he finishes it." He winked at me, the corners of his mouth and eyes wrinkled with old age. I laughed and nodded heading up the stairs to Frank's room to waste the day away.


	11. Chapter 11

[Frank's P.O.V.]

"Ugh…" I groaned, looking at the mountainous pile of homework I had to do and trying to comprehend how the other students managed to do this daily. 

"Easily." I jumped and my chair rolled out from under me, sending me crashing to the floor. A hand reached down and grabbed my arm, yanking me to my feet. "You ok?" I glanced up and rolled my eyes when I saw the familiar glasses. 

"Thanks a lot four eyes." I grumbled and shrugged his hand off my right arm, not at all liking the fact that he was touching my disfigured skin. 

"Four eyes? Really? How creative of you." He reached up and fingered his glasses, adjusting them on the bridge of his nose before grasping my escaped chair and rolling it back to the desk, taking a seat in it instantly. "You're never gonna finish this." He sighed and started fumbling through the stack of paper, laying assignments out in different spots. 

"Do I ever?" I sighed and flopped down on my bed, staring up at the various posters I'd had to get a ladder to tape to the ceiling. 

"Suppose not. You're gonna fail before we even get to the good part." I could see the corner of his mouth curl up in a smirk. 

"Mhmmm good part…sure…like there's ever a good part to school." I sat up and walked over to the corner, grasping the neck of Pansy, an electric guitar that was given to me by my parents before…y'know. Mikey turned around in the chair as I sat back down on the bed, adjusting the instrument on my lap and tinkering with the tuning till it was right where I wanted it. I plucked at the strings, spitting out random riffs here and there from various songs I'd listened to over the years. 

"You're really talented you know that?" I glanced up at him briefly before turning my gaze back to the guitar, stroking my fingers up the frets one last time before resting it on the bed behind me. "Frank?" 

"Yeah?" I met Mikey's gaze before his turned down to the floor and he seemed to think on something for a minute. 

"Why didn't you tell me about the man you saw that night…why'd you leave that part out?" I froze up, images of the white blonde popping back into my head. 

"Does it matter?" I exhaled shakily, trying to calm myself before I started to hyperventilate and eventually pass out due to stress. 

"No, I just…I thought you trusted me enough to tell me anything, but I keep finding out new things about you." One eyebrow raised up in question at him. 

"Mikey that's the only thing I've never told you. Where's this coming from? What's up with you lately?" Mikes just sighed deeply and stood up, looking like he was going to leave the room but instead he just sat down beside me on the bed and glanced back at Pansy laying behind us. 

"You never told me who taught you how to play guitar." 

"I told you already Mikes, I taught myself." 

"No you didn't. Don't lie to me Frank. I know a man named Ray Toro taught you how to play guitar. I know he was murdered and that you were his best student. I trust you with all my secrets so why can't you trust me with yours?" I stood up and glared at him. 

"What the fuck Mikey!? Are you digging into my personal life or something?! I DIDN'T TELL YOU FOR A FUCKING REASON! YOU EVER THINK ABOUT THAT?!" Mikey just looked down at the floor, like he was ashamed. "AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME A GODAMN THING ABOUT YOURSELF! I JUST FOUND OUT THAT YOU HAVE A FUCKING BROTHER!" 

"Frank, Gerard is bad news, that's why I never told you about him. He's a bad guy, don't get involved with him. Please, just don't." I crossed my arms and huffed. What was so wrong with Gerard? He seemed like a cool guy and an amazing artist. 

"Well if you didn't want me to be around Gerard then maybe you should have been in school today. I don't see anything wrong with him, and you can't tell me who I can and can't be around." Mikey stood up and latched on to my right arm and squeezed, causing the scarred flesh to sting slightly. 

"Stay. Away. From. Gerard." He snapped and his grip on my arm only tightened and I finally couldn't take it and I lashed out and punched him in the gut. He didn't move though, not a single reaction came from the tall, lanky boy. My fist actually felt like it was going to be bruised from punching him and strangely felt like it'd been frostbitten. Come to think of it, my arm felt like it was freezing over, originating from where his hand was latched on to the exposed skin.

"LET ME FUCKING GO!" I shouted and he snapped out of the weird trance like state he was in and released my arm, backing a few steps away. 

"Frank, I-I'm sorry…" He turned and pushed past me, bursting out of my room. I turned and ran out the door behind him but he was gone. I ran down the stairs into the living room where my grandfather sat on the couch, watching the tv, that was just near the base of the stairs. 

"Where'd Mikey go?" I paused and he looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. 

"I didn't see him leave." I looked back up the stairs and then to the front door. There was no other exit except for the front door, the house didn't have a lot of windows or a backdoor cause there was no backyard. I furrowed my eyebrows and trudged back up to my room, wondering how someone could just disappear.


	12. Chapter 12

Another day of school without Mikey. Gerard filled his empty seat yet again and proceeded to talk about his favorite bands and draw about twenty little vampires all with their fangs buried to the gums in this poor helpless girl. I fidgeted in my seat, twiddling my thumbs and, much to the dismay of my fellow classmates, flicked pieces of eraser across the room, nailing several in the head. 

"Hey Gerard?" His head snapped from his newly started doodle of Frankenstein. 

"Yeah?" He turned his eyes back to the drawing and continued on sketching out the bolts emerging from the side of the wrinkled flesh of the monster's neck. 

"Where's Mikey?" 

"He's with the para-he's busy." Gerard had quickly stopped his sentence, a brief look of fear flicked across his down turned eyes. I felt like I knew what he was about to say, because Mikey mentioned it so often but I played it up. 

"Were you about to say parents?" I asked instead of what I really wanted to. I really wanted to ask him why he'd been about to say parade and what the hell was their obsession with that topic. 

"No, I…he couldn't possibly be with our parents cause they're…they're long dead." My eyes flew wide and I just stared at him until he sighed and snapped his sketchbook shut, throwing it and the pencil back into his messenger bag and slumping back in his seat. 

"Oh my god I-" Gerard threw his hand up to silence me and just shook his head. 

"Its okay really. Its been along time since I've had to talk about it though. Didn't Mikey tell you they were dead?" He raised a questioning eyebrow at me and I just shook my head. 

"No, Mikey has hardly told me anything about himself, I didn't even know about you till you came to school." I sighed and mimicked him by slumping back in my chair. 

"Yeah, kinda figured…Mikey isn't exactly, uh happy with me lately." Gerard brushed his hand through his long black hair and rubbed his eyes. 

"Why not?" I breathed out and Gerard just let out a loud sigh and led his head flop back. 

"I can't-" 

"WAY! IERO!" We both jolted upright in our seats when Mr. Giles slammed his fist down on the table. He looked positively pissed. His eyebrows were knitted together and he frowned deeply, his face and ears slightly red. "Would either of you care to tell me the exact number of band members said to be in The Black Parade legend?" 

"Undetermined." Gerard belted out before I could even let the entire question soak in. I raised an eyebrow quizzically at him and he shrugged and tried to disappear further down in his chair. Mr. Giles came right up to Gerard's, well Mikey's desk but temporarily Gerard's, desk and gripped the edges of it, leaning over slightly. 

"Good answer. Alright Mr. Way, lets see how much you know." Gee sighed and I glanced around the room to find all eyes were on us. 

"In the myth, what colors did the parade consist of?" 

"Mainly black, white, and grey, but there was said to be red roses on the float." The description sounded like his drawing that was concealed in his sketchbook, which was nestled in his bag. Surprisingly Mr. Giles humphed and nodded. 

"Alright, the names of the two girls, whose names are based off certain emotions, said to travel with the parade are?" 

"Fear and Regret." He again answered without a moment's hesitation and Mr. Giles looked increasingly intrigued, like he was getting something he wanted from this. Gerard had told me that he was interested in the whole concept of a parade of death but I didn't get the vibe that he was as into is as Mikey, but he seemed to know a lot of shit about it. 

"In the myth the band members were supposed to have power unique to each individual. These powers were also associated with the instruments played. Match them, go." He snapped his fingers and Gerard glared before sitting up and opening his mouth to speak. 

"Drummer controls the emotions of the body, makes them feel anything the musician wants them to, bassist controls the human body physically such as the ability to cause an illness and force them to sleep at will," I froze up, my back stiffening at what he just said. Force them to sleep? Back at the hospital, Mikey had told me to go to sleep when I started questioning him and I did, I remembered my eyes shutting right as he commanded me to sleep. I stared at Gerard but he didn't meet my gaze. No, it's just…coincidental, I must have been more tired than I thought I was and just by chance he happened to say it as I fell asleep. Right? I tuned back in to Gerard's answer. "…singer is said to cause death, control who lives and dies, and the guitarists work together each having a power that opposes the others to keep each other in balance. The guitarists have the only powers that don't affect the human body, but the elements around them. The group as a whole can essentially change the world at will if they wanted to." Gerard smirked, his lips curling up as he stared at the teacher looming above him. Mr. Giles looked utterly pleased though and the other students were staring goggle-eyed at the pair. 

"Last question. According to recent myth, what are the names of two of members of the band that were said to be brothers in life? Detention if you don't answer." Gerard's eyes flew wide and he just sat there, staring at the desk before scrunching his eyes shut and sighing in defeat, but he looked like he knew the answer, why wouldn't he just say it?

"Come on Gerard, you share a name with one of them and so does your brother coincidentally." Gerard flashed me a glance out of the corner of his eye before standing up and grabbing his bag, throwing an angry glare at Mr. Giles and storming out of the room. Mr. Giles put his hands on his hips and looked completely smug, like he'd just accomplished some weird goal of his before glancing down at me with a smirk. He turned to the class and headed up to his desk, sitting back down and assigning class work. A tentative hand shot up in the air a few rows up from me. "Yes?" Mr. Giles sighed as he flipped through a stack of papers. 

"What-what were the names?" The timid girl, a complete braniac in science, yanked her hand back down and squeaked out. 

"Ah, the names were Gerard and Michael Way." My heart skipped a beat, quite literally and I gripped the edge of my chair, catching myself from falling off the edge, where I was precariously sitting. First the white blonde Mikey was talking to in the hall that one day, then his change in attitude, possibly forcing me to sleep at the hospital, his brother showing up out of nowhere, the mention of my guitar teacher that I know I never brought up before, the knowledge the two had of this "myth," and now this? What the fuck is going on?!


	13. Chapter 13

I left class shortly after Gerard angrily stormed out of the classroom. I couldn't bear sitting there in class any longer, not with my mind whirring like it was. I planned on finding Gerard but I had no clue where he and Mikey lived or where they hung out or anything for fuck sake. It was frustrating that after all these years I still didn't know shit about Mikey. This whole Black Parade thing was infuriating as well, I could never get Mikey to shut up about it in the first place and now Gerard displays the fact that he knows just as much as Mikey and they share the same names as these "musician" people. What the fuck!? I clenched my fists as I stormed down the hallways, pushing past a couple of jocks who were quick to act upon it. A meaty hand clamped down on my shoulder and my entire body tensed up at the familiarity of it. 

"Where you going freak?" How creative. I rolled my eyes as the head jock, Nick Martin, spun me around and pressed me up against the lockers. I was too pissed off to feel afraid so I sent a swift kick up to his groin and took off running as soon as he doubled over. I could hear the thundering footsteps as he and the rest of his group of assholes ran after me. I was only fast in the sense that when I was panicked I could run like hellhounds were chasing me. This wasn't panic though, I was experiencing an adrenaline rush as a result of the combination of anger and excitement. I did just nail the school's biggest ass in the groin after all and I had to find Gerard or Mikey and play a vicious game of twenty questions. I ran out into the parking lot and then out on to the sidewalk alongside the main road. I hit the bus stop quick enough to hop on just as it was getting ready to leave. The bus jolted forward as I took my seat and waited for it to head into town. I got off at the first stop and started trudging down the street towards the coffee shop. I had nowhere to start checking but the shop was a pretty popular place and thinking back, Mikey always used to have a coffee cup from this place when he walked into school. I went in and ordered a frozen coffee but had no plans to actually drink it. I was too amped up right now to add boatloads of caffeine to the mix. I took the drink and sat down in the back corner where I had a view of the whole place. I'd sit here until the place closed if I had to and again tomorrow. Fuck school, missing a few days couldn't hurt, I mean its not like I really did anything for it anyways. I just had to find Mikey and or Gerard. 

I must have sat there for a good four hours that day, not touching the drink in front of me even once, instead just watching the beads of water from condensation roll down the plastic and pool on the table until there were none left. It'd been a week now. Mikey hadn't come back to school and Gerard had disappeared as well. I hadn't seen either of them in town…its like they just dropped off the face of the earth. I was starting to give up hope that I'd ever get the chance to talk to them, much less see them again. I never thought I'd miss the lanky, usually annoying, obsessive teen, but I did. I missed having him around and being able to talk to someone other than my grandfather. It's been a week and I decided this was the last time I'd come to the coffe shop and wait. I've been sitting at the same table for a little over five hours now, staring blankly at the full cup of iced coffee I'd ordered but never touched. The staff here started to know me by name and would occasionally come by and ask if I was alright. I sighed and looked up for the hundredth time at the door, but when I did I practically fell backwards out of my chair. 

"GAH!" I yelped when I noticed the person sitting in the chair opposite me, who definitely hadnt been there a minute ago. I took a deep breath before taking in the person's features. It was one of two people I'd been waiting for. He was wearing the same fucking jacket he did every day, a grey beanie pulled on over his light brown hair, and black rimmed glasses perched neatly on the tip of his nose. "Mikey!?" 

"Hey." He nearly whispered as he pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. The anger I'd felt at the beginning of my wait flared up, replacing shock in an instant. 

"'Hey'? You storm out of my house then don't show up at school for a fucking week, leaving me with Gerard for a few days after telling me not to be around him for god knows why and all you say is 'hey'? Mikey I've been-" 

"-waiting for me. I know." I clenched my fists at his answer. If he knew I was waiting then why the hell wouldn't he show up till now? How the fuck would he know I'm waiting for him anyways? 

"What the fuck is going on Mikey?" I snapped and he didn't even raise an eyebrow in question, he just sighed and pulled his glasses off, resting them on the table. 

"Frank, please just…hear me out." I glared at Mikey, but his gaze stayed downcast at the floor. I grumbled and sat down, not realizing I had stood up in the first place. My fists remained clenched on the table though as we sat in silence for a few moments. "Frank, I can't tell you what's going on. I can't even tell you how I know that's what you're thinking. I can't tell you anything about me because…and this sounds cheesy but…you have to trust me." Mikey's gaze finally met mine and all I could do was stare. He looked upset and honestly a little frail. He reminded me of myself when I was in the hospital the very first time, I felt so broken and weak lying there all wrapped up and in excruciating pain. 

"Mikey, I need to know. I can't just sit here and go crazy cause something is going on and I don't know what. You keep answering my thoughts like you know what they are and you're absolutely convinced this 'Black Parade' exists. I mean you and Gerard know a fuck ton about it! I just…I need to know before I completely lose it." Mikey sighed, it was long and drawn out like he was trying lift the weight of the world off his back. He brought his slender fingers to his eyes and rubbed them for a moment before opening them and looking down at the floor. 

"Frank, I want to tell you, but I can't. Gerard and I would be in a huge amount of trouble if we were caught. I've already said enough with just that. I just came…I came to say goodbye really." My eyes flew wide as dinner plates as that and all the tension in my body suddenly dissipated, my shoulders dropped and I felt numb. It took a minute for his words to really sink in though. I turned my gaze up to Mikey again, his remained focused on the floor. 

"Why?" I didn't mean to sound harsh but it came across that way. He ignored me so I stood up, banging my fists down on the table, my chair clattering to the ground and earning me glares from other customers. Mikey jumped and his eyes shifted and met mine. 

"Frank, calm down please." Mikey whispered and I honestly wanted to just blow up in his face right then, but I grabbed his arm and yanked him from the chair, leading him outside, across the street, down the road, and into the park. I forced him to sit down on an old wooden bench as far from the main part of the park as possible. I was angry, more enraged then I'd ever been. 

"WHAT THE FUCK MIKEY!? YOU'RE JUST GONNA LEAVE OUT OF THE BLUE!?" I threw my red fingerless gloved hands up in the air around me as I paced in front of him. 

"Frank, its not really that out of the blue. Gerard and I move around a lot, its no big deal." I could tell it was though, the look in his eyes told me that he didn't want to go, but was forced to. I dropped my hands down to my sides and felt a rush of tears start to build up behind my eyes. 

"Mikey, please don't. I never say it, but you're honestly the only person that ever gave a shit about me, outside my family that is. You're the only one who knows pretty much everything about me and the only one that I can open up to and count on to be there for me. Don't take that away from me, please. You can tell me anything and I'll never say a word. You don't have to tell me anything either and I'll just pretend that none of this happened and let it go back to the way it was. Just…don't go." The tears flowed down my cheeks freely now and I plopped down on the bench beside him and buried my face in my hands, my gloves soaking up the tears. Mikey really was the only friend I'd had. No one else bothered to befriend "the deformed weirdo cripple." No one but Mikey that is. 

"Frank, you're not a deformed weirdo cripple." Mikey whispered and I looked up at him questioningly, realizing he'd answered my thoughts again. 

"How'd you…never mind. You don't have to say a word, but please just…stay, please?" Mikey just stared back at me before his gaze eventually softened, his straight faced mask slipping. 

"I'll stay. It's not that I don't trust you with my secrets Frank, they're just really way too important to let the world find out about." I smiled cheerily at Mikey, wiping away any remaining tears with the back of my gloved hand. I'd waited all that time at the coffee shop to scream and yell till he'd tell me everything, but now…I'll just wait. He'll tell me if he wants, just so long as I don't lose the only person, other than my grandfather, that actually cares. I leaned against Mikey's shoulder and he just chuckled lightly. 

We sat in silence long enough for my thoughts to start drifting and I noticed one thing that bothered me. Mikey hadn't put his glasses back on since he took them off at the shop. I turned my head to glance at him and noticed he had leaned back on the bench and his eyes had drifted shut. A smile curled up on his face though.

"I don't need them." He whispered and I sat up straighter. He was letting on again that he knew everything I was thinking. I opened my mouth to speak but quickly snapped it shut. He'll tell me if he wants. "I want to tell you Frank, I really do. I just…can't." 

"You've basically already told me you can read minds though. Am I right?" Mikey's eyes opened slowly and he leaned forwards with a smirk. 

"I guess I can at least tell you the small things. First answer, yes I know what you're thinking. I've always known that, ever since you were old enough to form coherent thoughts at least."

"Wait…are you trying to tell me you've been around me since I was like five?" Mikey just laughed lightly and relaxed back against the bench. 

"I've been around a while Frank. At least thirty eight years now." Mikey clenched his fingers on his lap, clearly waiting for some kind of freak out reaction, but I steadied my breath before it became erratic with this new information and force myself to calmly lean back against the bench as well. 

"But-" I choked out, trying to sound steady but clearly failing. 

"I know, I don't look that old. My physical self hasn't aged for eighteen years." He frowned then looked out across the park like he was searching for something to lighten the mood or at least change the subject. 

"So you're immortal?" I whispered and he just turned and nodded before standing up off the bench and turning to face me. 

"I think I've said enough for one night. Plus, I think its time you get some real sleep. School tomorrow, you've missed enough." I rolled my eyes at him and stood up as well, rubbing my arms at the realization I had goosebumps covering them from the cold, 

"You gonna be there?" I questioned and he just smiled lightly before nodding. 

"Yeah I'll be there." 

"What about Gerard?" Mikey's smile dissipated and he turned to leave, starting to walk in the opposite direction of me before he answered. 

"Guess we'll find out tomorrow."


	14. Chapter 14

[Mikey's P.O.V.]

I didn't want Gerard to be there, but he was. I walked into class the next day with high hopes that he'd stayed with the parade, but of course he hadn't. He was sitting in my spot by Frank, who was nervously looking between Gerard and I.

"Oh hey Mikes, didn't think you'd show today." Gerard smirked and stood up from my usual spot and quickly moved to the one on the other side of Frank, which was open due to an absence. I shot a glare at Gerard and he just chuckled before turning his attention back to Frank. 

"So, what was I saying?" 

"You were telling me about immortality…" Frank mumbled and my eyes widened at the subject of the conversation. _What are you doing Gerard?_ I thought towards him, his eyes flashing over to meet mine. 

_You spilled the beans, I'm just elaborating._

_Gerard, back off. I'll tell Frank and you just stay away from him._ I snarled inside my head, which is surprisingly difficult. Thoughts just never sound the same as speaking out loud. 

"Calm down Mikey." He spoke out loud and Frank rose a quizzical eyebrow at me before his mouth formed and "oh." 

"Mind thing…got it…" I sighed and leaned back in my chair, glancing up as Mr. Giles started another class period speaking about The Black Parade. I heard a buzzing sound in my head before I realized they were thoughts, Frank's thoughts. I had tuned in to them on accident.

_This is so fucking frustrating. I basically know nothing about them, but I can't ask or they'll leave. FUCK! Stupid arm._ I glanced down at Frank's arm and saw he'd scratched it too hard and pulled a little of his skin. His face was twisted with pain, something he'd told me a while ago. His skin felt like it was still on fire on occasion and whenever he'd touch it, it was like renewing that night's pain. I leaned over towards Frank.

"I'll make you a deal. You listen and pay attention to everything he says about The Black Parade and do your homework and I'll tell you more about Gerard and I. Stop scratching your arm, you're only gonna make it worse." I'd let on that I'd been listening to his thoughts again and he stiffened in his seat before forcing himself to relax and turning his eyes to meet mine. 

"Why?" He whispered as Mr. Giles put on a documentary, flipping the lights off and engulfing the class in the darkness of the room momentarily. 

"Because, like you said, you'll go crazy if you don't know and I'm gonna use that as leverage to get you to at least slide by this year." Frank humphed and nodded, holding out his hand to me. I grabbed it and we shook hands, pronouncing that we had a deal. 

"Frank, Michael, and Gerard, where are your notes?" I jumped, not even hearing Mr. Giles approach. 

"Uh, sorry Mr. Giles." I fished through my bag and yanked out a spiral notebook and a pen, quickly flipping to an open page and ripping out two sheets for Frank and Gerard. Gee always had a pen on him so I gave Frank the only other pen I had. It was silver, roses carved into the metal, and very special to Gerard and I. It was her's, Linda's. She used that pen for everything. From writing checks and notes to writing in the baby book we'd given to her when she was seven months pregnant. Of course Frank didn't know that, but some part of him must have deemed it special because he wrote very cautiously with it, not a usual occurrence for him. I glanced at Gerard who was eyeing the pen, a look of sadness spread across his face. I turned my gaze away before the same look covered mine and looked at the pull down screen. I'd seen this stupid documentary a dozen times. People actually thought the parade was a hoax and that this group of teenagers went around trying to get people to believe in the "legend." I snorted when a teen's sketch of the parade came up on the screen. It paled in comparison to the one in Gerard's sketchbook. 

"Alright, I'm doing my work and paying attention. Tell me something." Frank whispered nervously and I looked away from the screen. 

"Okay, what do you want to know? Only one question at a time." 

"Where were you born?" Seriously? That's the best question he could think of? Oh well. 

"Here in Belleville. A question a day, so that's it for now." I smirked and his jaw dropped in frustration before he quickly clamped his teeth back together as Mr. Giles made his rounds. The documentary kept going and going, never seeming to have an end like I knew it would, so I let my mind wander to an old memory. 

Gerard and I were in the cemetery, standing in front of our mother's grave. 

_"What are we going to do Gee? Everyone but Linda thinks we're dead." I sighed, leaning down and placing a bouquet of flowers on mom's grave._

_"I don't know Mikes, I really don't." Gerard thinking hard about something, I could tell by the way his mouth was set into a tight, thin line. I turned and started to walk away from the grave when I noticed another mourner in the cemetery. It was an elderly man, standing in front of a large headstone, tears running down his weathered cheeks. I walked over to him, standing beside the broken man, and read the headstone. Melinda Jenner. She had passed just recently, at the age of eighty one. I frowned and turned my gaze to the old man. Surprisingly he wasn't frowning, the corners of his mouth were upturned. He was smiling at her grave._

_"She was the most amazing woman I'd ever met y'know. Hard to believe she's gone, but…she's in a better place." The man's eyes met mine and his hand came to rest on my shoulder. I could feel the warmth radiating from him._

_"H-How…you can see me?" I whispered and he nodded._

_"The living can see the dead if they try hard enough, but you are neither. I've seen you and you're brother here almost everyday and sometimes its like I'm looking right through you and others you're as solid as that headstone. I was curious at first, but…now I know that you're just as lost as I am. We both lost people we cared about, people we'd do anything for, and we don't know what to do next. You've lost more than me, you've literally lost yourselves, but keep an open mind Mikey Way. You'll know what to do when the time comes." The man smiled and gave my shoulder a firm squeeze before turning and placing a bouquet of flowers on Melinda's grave, soon after leaving the graveyard. I looked up to where Gerard was still standing, his gaze turned up towards the overcast sky. We'd find something. Somehow._

I sighed when the memory faded and my gaze focused back on the screen, seeing the documentary was still dragging on. Out of my peripheral vision I could see Frank slumped forward on his desk, a puddle of drool forming on the desk from his open mouth. He was completely passed out again. I rolled my eyes and sat back in my chair, closing my eyelids and allowing another memory to come rushing forward. 

_"Mikey! Mikey!" Linda was shouting from upstairs. I quickly jumped from my spot on the couch next to Gerard and scrambled up the steps to her bedroom. Her parents had been less than thrilled when they learned she was pregnant and told her she was to take on all responsibility and move in to an apartment. She'd bought a house instead though, granted a small one, but it was perfect for her. I pushed the door open and saw her standing in front of the closet, both hands cradling her seven month belly. A smile spread across her face when she saw me push the door open. "Mikey, can you reach that box at the top there? The one with the baby clothes in it?" I turned and looked up at the top of the closet where the box was perched and nodded, moving forward and reaching up on my tiptoes for the plastic container. I grabbed the edge and yanked it down, turning and laying it on the bed behind me. Linda's arms wrapped around my chest from behind and I could feel her stomach press into my back. "Where would I be without my boys." She sighed and released me before I could even act upon it. I sat down on the bed beside the box and watched as she opened it and gently ran her fingers across all the little clothes laying inside, an impossibly large smile plastered to her face._

_"Are you excited?" I whispered, her eyes flitting up to meet mine._

_"More than I ever thought I would be. I mean, really, who looks forward to hearing a baby cry all night? I do, I look forward to meeting him." She'd refused to let the doctor tell her what she was carrying, but I think we'd all agreed it was a boy._

_"Do you know what you're going to name him?" She sighed and sat down beside me on the bed, leaning against me and resting her hands on her stomach._

_"I think I do, but I'm not sure. I'll know when I see him." Linda yawned loudly and giggled, causing a smile to break through the "poker face" she'd said I grew up with. "Nice smile." She whispered and I chuckled. "Wish I could see it more often." Her words were getting sluggish so I gently picked her up and shifted her so she was lying comfortably in the center of the bed. I pulled the covers down under her before bringing them back up and resting them just above her stomach. She smiled again and laid a hand on mine beside her on the bed. We sat there for a few moments, her eyelids getting closer and closer together._

_"Go to sleep." She smiled and let her eyes close, falling into a peaceful sleep, her hand still firmly clasped over mine. I sat there the rest of the night, listening to her soft breaths and occasional shifts. I'd only moved once when the sun started to rise and shine in her face. I closed the curtains and reclaimed my spot on the bed, wanting her to sleep as long as her body deemed necessary._

_Gerard slipped into the room a few hours later, the skin around his eyes was dark and he looked sad._

_"What's wrong Gee?" I spoke quietly, not wanting to wake her._

_"What if we lose her Mikey? What if this baby takes her from us?" Gerard and I had been worrying about this for the past month, ever since the doctor told us that the baby would most likely have to be born through C-section because of Linda's small frame._

_"He won't Gerard, the baby won't take her from us. I know it." I looked back at her. She was strong and healthy, she wouldn't let herself die and not have the chance to be with her child. I hoped. Linda's eyelids fluttered open, revealing the beautiful hazel eyes behind them. A smile formed on her lips as she slowly sat up and propped herself on the pillows. Her hands immediately made their way to her stomach, rubbing it softly._

_"He's still sleeping." She smirked but then flinched slightly. "And now he's not. I swear he knows when I'm talking about him." Gerard and I shared concerned glances when she groaned a little as the baby kicked. "Guys, its alright." I felt her hand latch on to mine and guide it up to her belly, pressing it firmly against her side. I felt the faintest little flutter against my hand and I couldn't help but smile. She smiled back._

_It was weird feeling._ The voice in my head snapped me out of the memory. I glanced around before my eyes caught Gerard's. His gaze turned back to his sketchbook. _Even weirder now that we're sitting beside him. All grown up._

_Still our little Frankie though. Another reason why you should have saved him instead of just sitting by._ I couldn't help but add the last bit in, knowing it would just make the conversation take a turn for the worse. 

_Didn't have a choice Mikey. Frank was meant to die that day, you shouldn't have stopped it. Like Linda told us, interfering with death is hazardous._ His pen strokes became increasingly furious as we spoke.

_It's Frank, Gerard. I couldn't let him die. I just…not him._ The conversation dropped at that, neither of us willing to continue. We'd fought enough about it, this isn't what brothers were supposed to do. I sighed and scrawled down some notes on my piece of paper and elbowed Frank in the arm. He sat up, completely dazed before reality set in and he groaned in disgust as he wiped his slobber from his face. 

"Ugh…" He sighed and glanced at me, a quick little smirk spreading across his face. The same smirk Linda had whenever she knew she'd won a bet. 

"Nice concentration." I rolled my eyes and he just giggled lightly before writing his name on the only partially filled page of notes and handing it to Mr. Giles, who looked impressed that Frank had actually done anything at all. The little curl of hair beside Frank's ear made a smile appear on my face momentarily. He was still the little bouncing, bubbly, way to hyper for his own good, baby boy we'd watched grow up. He was still our little Frankie.


	15. Chapter 15

[Frank's P.O.V.]

I sighed as I stood up, stretching slightly and allowing my sleeve to slide up my arm a little as I stretched my arms out, revealing the scarred skin to the world again. I sighed and grabbed the sleeve of my maroon and black striped, long sleeve shirt, and yanked it back down, grasping the end of it in my palm. I glanced at Mikey and Gerard, who were waiting for me at the door, both smiling weirdly at me. I walked up to them and they just stood there smiling. 

"What?" I glanced at both of them, starting to feel irritated and self conscious. They just kept smiling. "WHAT?!" I shouted and Mikey chuckled then headed out of the room in front of me, leading the way down the hall towards my next period. 

"So Frankie, heard from a friend that you're quite the guitar player." Gerard was walking closely to me, occasionally bumping his elbow against mine as we pushed and shoved our way through the main hall. "Fucking school." Gerard growled and I couldn't help but smirk. 

"Uh, I can play. Nothing special though." I sighed, glancing down at my arm, thinking about how I hadn't played as much since that night. "What friend told you though?" Gerard just grinned and glanced at Mikey, eliciting a chuckle from me. We walked down the hall a little longer until Gerard had to branch off at the end of the hall, quickly scurrying into a math class, leaving Mikey and I to walk together to our next shared class, English. My mind started whirring again with the silence between us. They knew me when I was little, Mikey had said they did. I don't remember them at all though and I definitely think I would remember a tall lanky kid and his slightly off center brother. 

"No, you wouldn't remember." Mikey whispered and I just stopped in the hall to look at him again. 

"Have you always been in my head this much?" Mikey stopped and looked around, the hallways pretty much empty by now. 

"To be honest, I've stayed out of your head up until recently. I'm sorry if it bothers you, but I wanted to know what you were thinking lately, since things are obviously changing." He sighed and pushed his glasses up on his nose, sighing and shoving his hand back into his pocket, adjusting his shoulder strap on his bag with his other hand. 

"You thought I would freak out didn't you?" He smirked only lightly before turning and continuing to walk down the hallway. I quickly moved to catch up to him, struggling to keep pace with his longer steps as we headed briskly down the halls to our next class. "You didn't answer my question." 

"Yes, I thought you would be afraid of Gerard and I, but was pleasantly surprised to find that you became quizzical instead." Mikey froze in the hallway and turned his head, looking behind us. I stopped and looked back as well, there were a few people still lingering in the halls. There was a couple at their locker, pressing their lips together and holding each other close, a teen walking slowly down the hall with his headphones in, and another was sitting on the bench, but he was the only one looking our way. I glanced to Mikey then back to the blonde with the lip ring sitting on the bench. They were staring intently at each other, before Mikey grabbed my arm and turned me back in the direction of our class. "Come on Frank, we're gonna be late." I glanced back over my shoulder at the blonde, who was still watching us as we walked away. 

"Who's that?" Mikey just looked back and I did as well, but the guy was gone, like he'd just vanished. 

"Who?" Mikey was lying out his ass, I could tell by his face but I decided to drop it and just head to class with him. Almost five minutes after walking in Mikey's hand was shooting up into the air and the teacher was letting him take the hall pass to go to the nurse's. I just watched questioningly as he left the room and spent the rest of the class period awaiting his return. He didn't come back. 

I walked home alone that afternoon, forgoing the bus and Gerard's offer to drive me since my car was in the shop for some more body work, that my grandfather was so kind to do for me. I just wanted to walk and think, be alone for a little bit. I don't know why Mikey had just up and left, then didn't bother showing up to the rest of his classes. I reached the front door of the house and used my key to get in. "Gramps! I'm home!" I called out, waiting for his usual reply of 'How was school!?' but it didn't come. I raised an eyebrow and headed into the kitchen, dropping my backpack at the table and heading up the stairs to his bedroom, pushing the door open but he wasn't there either. "Gramps?" I looked in the bathroom, the living room, the garage, his office, and my bedroom. He wasn't here, but his car was. I grabbed my cell out of my pocket and opened it up, seeing I had no new messages or missed calls from him. Odd. There was a new message from a number I didn't recognize though. I held down the '1' key and listened as it queued up my voicemail. 

"You have 1 new message and 1 saved message." The monotone female voice came up and I rolled my eyes, waiting for it to get on to the message. I knew what the saved message was, it was the last message my mom had left on my phone, telling me she missed me and she loved me. "New message. 'Hello Mr. Iero, this is Dr. Costa." My breath hitched in my throat. Dr. Costa had always been the one to care for me whenever I had my episodes and landed in the hospital, his calls were never good. "I don't want to alarm you, but your Grandfather is at the hospital, he's had a heart attack and we're keeping him overnight to monitor him. You know the visiting hours, he's sleeping now but you're welcome to come down. I'd like to speak with you anyways." The phone slipped from my hand and crashed to the floor. I darted back to the kitchen, snatching up my bag and my Grandfather's keys, running to the garage and jumping into his old Cadillac and driving out. I sped down the road towards the hospital, quickly parking once I was there and running inside to the front desk. Kate, one of the many nurses I'd become acquainted with because of my frequent visits, came around from behind the desk and quickly took me to the elevator without a word. We went up to the second floor and she quickly led me down the halls to the patient rooms and opened the door to Room 2625. I headed inside and pulled back the curtain, seeing my Grandfather lying on the bed, a whole bunch of wires and tubes connected to his body. A silent stream of tears started to make their way down my cheeks as I sat down in the chair beside his bed. 

"Hey Gramps…" I choked out and grabbed his hand with my right hand, my scarred skin resting over his wrinkled flesh. "You weren't supposed to have a heart attack without me around. You promised remember?" I smirked but still cried heavily. He'd had a history of heart problems and a few heart attacks before I lived with him, in the end the doctors said that his heart was getting weaker, they didn't expect him to live through another. Now here we were again though, his heart beating slowly and his flesh a little too icy for my liking. "Don't you dare leave me." 

"Frank…" I glanced up and saw Mikey standing in the corner of the room, looking slightly disheveled and his glasses missing, Gerard was at his side and both looked like they'd been there for hours. 

"You left." Was all I could say to Mikey in the current situation. 

"I know, I came here…" He whispered in return. I glanced at my Grandfather then back to him. He just nodded and my eyes widened. 

"You knew he was dying? How?!" Gerard looked to Mikey and Mikes just shook his head 'no' at Gee. 

"If you won't tell him I will, Mikey. No use hiding it now." Gerard stood up and walked over to me, as he did his clothes started changing. His hoodie changed shape and tightened so that it was snuggly fitting him, silver accents appeared on the hoodie, no more like a jacket now. His pants were slimmer and a silver stripe ran down them. I jumped up and backed away from him as he approached, one thing stood out and was way to familiar to me. His black hair was shorter now and no longer ebony, but snow white. My heart started pounding and my lungs started sucking air in and out way too fast, I was hyperventilating. 

"Y-you…you're…" I was too stunned to form any coherent sentences, Gerard's eyes bore into mine and I started feeling light headed as he got closer. 

"Gerard!" Mikey stepped in front of me, I immediately noticed the silver accented jacket he was wearing as well, his reaching mid thigh. When I looked up his light brown hair had darkened and was shorter now. He glanced at me over his shoulder and I finally couldn't take anymore and blacked out.


	16. Chapter 16

[Mikey's P.O.V.]

I caught Frank just before his head collided with the tile floor, turning my head and glaring up at Gerard. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" I spat, turning my gaze back to Frank, holding my hand to his neck, feeling his erratic pulse. 

"I'm sick of waiting for you to tell him. You've hinted for years Mikey, but you've never gotten as close as you are now. You came to his Grandfather, knowing he'd pass tonight, you told him you'd known, and I took this opportunity to show him why. I'm tired of waiting for him to join us, so I'm gonna speed things along." Gerard glared down at me, his eyes almost black and practically commanding respect. That was another thing about Gerard, he was in control when he wanted to be, it was another of his gifts, and one of the only reasons the parade wasn't disorderly. I tore my gaze from his, lifting Frank up into my arms and forcing my appearance to change back to the way Frank had always seen me. I glared at Gerard as I passed him and carried Frank out of the room. I spotted Dr. Costa and walked straight to him, his eyes widening a little before relaxing himself. Dr. Costa and Mr. Giles were the only others that knew of our secret, they had died and were brought back like Frank had been, the difference was that Costa and Giles had seen the parade, knew it existed for sure. I approached Costa and he immediately looked to Frank who was slumped against me. 

"What happened?" He glanced up to me, bringing his hand to Frank's neck and checking his pulse. 

"Nothing I can speak of here." I whispered and he quickly nodded, leading me down the hall towards an empty room where I placed Frank on the bed. As Costa hooked Frank up to the heart monitor and an IV, I just stared out the window, watching the sky get gradually darker as night approached. "Gerard showed him." I breathed out and listened as Costa's breath hitched. 

"Why would he do that?" I turned as he was pulling the thin sheet up over Frank and adjusting the pillow so he would sleep comfortably. 

"Because he's anxious." I said tiredly, wishing I could just fall asleep like Frank and not have to think about any of this for just a little while. Costa just stood beside Frank, brushing a little lock of his hair out of his face. 

"I don't understand why he'd want to hurt him. Why he'd want to kill someone so innocent and broken. Hasn't Frank been through enough in his life?" He whispered and glanced to me, taking a seat beside me. 

"Gerard wants him because he knows that Frank will fill that last piece we're missing, once that happens…" Frank was our missing link, you could say. He was he last piece to the puzzle that was The Black Parade. I don't remember when we found out that he would be joining us, maybe it was when he'd fallen out of the tree when he was little and his heart had stopped for three minutes, maybe it was then, but I don't remember for sure. We just knew that when he finally joined us, then we'd be powerful. The power meant nothing to us then, it was just an idea, but after that night…the night we lost her, it changed. Gerard wanted the power so much then, in those twenty minutes after she died he'd decided it was worth letting Frank pass and join us. I never thought he'd actually just stand by though, I didn't even know he'd gone to them. I couldn't bring myself to, as soon as I felt her life slip I broke down, I collapsed on the float and when I woke I searched for Frank's presence, only to find it slipping away. Now, I knew just what Gerard was willing to do to get that power, because he hoped…he hoped he could bring her back. 

"You can't let that happen." Dr. Costa spoke up. "It isn't right, what's passed has passed." I nodded in agreement, sighing and placing my head in my hands, listening to the soft beeps from the heart monitor. 

"I won't let it happen. She wouldn't want that, she'd be enraged if we let her son die for our selfish purposes." I sat back and looked at Frank, sleeping peacefully in the bed, knowing that once he woke up he'd be in a panic again. 

"So are you going to let him know it was real when he wakes or just pass it off as a nightmare?" I glanced to the elderly doctor and breathed out heavily. 

"I can't hide it from him anymore, not with Gerard on the warpath. I'll tell him and just pray that he doesn't run." There was an awkward silence between the both of us before Costa's pager beeped and he stood up quickly, his eyes meeting mine. "I know…that's why I'm here." He shook his head and darted from the room. I stood up and quietly followed, entering the room we'd been in previously. Frank's grandfather was slumped in his bed, his body limp and the heart monitor blaring loudly, alerting the staff that the heart of the bed's occupant had stopped beating. Costa grabbed the defibrillator and began frantically trying to restart the weathered man's heart. I knew it was hopeless though, I'd forseen his death at school this morning and I could feel his presence slipping from this world and passing on into the next. Costa glanced back at me and I just shook my head, his hands slipped away from the defib unit and he sighed, a few tears slipping down his cheeks. He'd been friends with him longer than I'd been alive. "I'm sorry." I whispered out before exiting the room and walking down the hall, allowing myself to fade from this world and reappear at the parade. 

It'd been a few days since Frank had passed out and I'd only just come back to be by his side. Dr. Costa was sitting near his bed when I reappeared, not initially sensing my presence. He looked like he'd aged by twenty years since I saw him the other night, his best friend's death had taken its toll surprisingly fast. My heart sank as I realized that Frank was unaware that he'd lost the last family member he had. I took a step forwards towards the bed and his head snapped up and he jumped in his seat. 

"Mikey…" He looked me over, gulping and taking a deep breath to calm himself. I was still in my parade uniform, but in order to relax him I changed my appearance instantly, his body slumping a little as I did. "Haven't seen you like that since that day." He whispered. 

"Sorry." I took another step, leaning against Frank's bed now. I reached down and brushed his hair from his face, causing him to twitch for a brief second but quickly relax again. "Nothing yet?" I looked up hopefully at him but he shook his head. 

"He's still out, not a peep from him yet." Costa sighed, but after a few moments a light smile played on his lips. "I remember when he was born." I sat down in a chair beside him, listening to the story even though I knew how it played out. "Linda drove herself here even though she was in a lot of pain. She was such a strong girl and she was so ready to meet her little boy." I listened as my mind started playing out the events of that day in my head. 

_We were at Linda's, helping her fold the remaining baby clothes she'd washed. She would stop every few minutes to rub the side of her stomach, claiming the baby was super restless that day. Gerard and I watched her nervously, even though she'd kept reassuring us that she was still two weeks away from her due date and he wouldn't be coming any sooner._

_"Linda, you sure you're okay?" I asked for the billionth time and for the billionth time she just rolled her eyes._

_"I'm fine Mikey! I mean it! I'm alright, the baby is alright, everything is good." She smiled and continued placing the little onesies into their new drawers in the nursery. Gerard had painted the walls a soft blue as per Linda's request, even though the baby's gender was uncertain, she was still convinced she was having a boy. The furniture was white and there were all kinds of stuffed animals and baby toys littering the corners and part of the crib. It was hard to believe that in just two weeks there would be a little person sleeping in that crib, it was hard to believe that Linda would be a mom and, according to her, we'd be uncles. I stood up just as Linda let out a muffled groan, her hand flitting to the underside of her belly, massaging the area. She caught my worried expression. "Mikey, I'm fine." She snapped and I put my hands up innocently. Gerard and I left the room, heading downstairs to finish cleaning up the rest of the house, making sure that there were no little pieces of anything that a baby could swallow or shove up their nose. It'd been a mere five minutes before I heard Linda cry out. "MIKEY! GERARD!" I looked to my brother and we both darted up the stairs. Linda was leaning against the wall, both hands clutching her stomach. "I'm…not okay. Hospital. NOW!" Gerard and I ran to her side, wrapping one arm each around her and helping her down the stairs and out to the car. She'd have to drive unfortunately, we'd had problems before trying to drive, some successful but mainly the issue was people freaking out that a car was driving itself. Linda was still the only one who could see us. We settled her in the driver's seat and I quickly clambered into the passenger side, with Gerard getting in the back but leaning between our seats. Her face was scrunched up in pain._

_"Linda, just take a deep breath remember?" She'd forced me to watch one too many videos with her, I was scarred for life, but I was kind of glad she had so I could help now. She took a deep breath and as soon as her pain subsided she threw the car into drive and sped off down the road, arriving at the nearest hospital and quickly heading inside with Gerard and I in tow. She was immediately put in a wheelchair and taken up to the second floor where we met her in the hall, having phased ourselves onto the floor. She just glanced at us as they pushed her down the hall, we couldn't speak…they'd think she was crazy._

_They took her to a room where it took thirty-two hours for her to finally reach the point where she could start pushing. Gerard and I made sure to stay up by her head, not wanting to see what was going on down there at all, even though we'd seen all those videos. It'd taken a mere five minutes before Dr. Costa, her father's friend, was holding up a wailing baby. She was slick with sweat and panting in exhaustion but her eyes lit up when she heard him cry. Costa placed the little baby into her arms, announcing it was a boy, and she glanced up at Gerard and I, silently saying 'I told you so.' I looked to Gerard, he was smiling from ear to ear and I realized that I was too. We both watched as Linda held this tiny little thing in her arms, cooing at him, and brushing her fingers lightly against his cheeks as if he were made of glass._

_"You have a name for him?" Costa stood up, pulling the blanket over her as he did. Linda was silent for a few moments, seemingly forgetting all other presences in the room except for the now sleeping bundle in her arms, her eyes flitted up and met ours before looking to the doctor._

_"Frank. Frank Anthony Iero." A silent tear slipped down her cheek._

"I'd never seen someone so happy." Dr. Costa finished speaking and I smiled at him before looking to the eighteen year old version of that little baby. 

"She loved him so much." I choked out, holding back tears that threatened to spill over. "I just wish she were here now to see her little boy. He's all grown up." I mocked a proud father, eliciting a chuckle from Costa. 

"Well, he's still short." He smirked and I laughed, I actually laughed pretty damn hard for the first time in a long time. I was thankful for Costa, but more importantly, I was thankful for Frank. He'd brought the much needed happiness in Linda's life, and I couldn't thank him enough for the smiles he'd brought to her face.


	17. Chapter 17

Another five days had passed with no signs of Frank waking up any time soon. Dr. Costa was worriedly checking on him every half hour, while I just listened to the steady thump of his heart. I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried. My mind was racing a hundred miles an hour and gaining speed with each passing moment. I was thinking of any way I could forcibly wake him up without hurting him or worse…scaring him shitless, not that he already won't be anyways. 

After fifteen minutes of me just sitting in the same spot, Dr. Costa walked in again. 

"Mikey, you should go. He'll be fine here and you look like you need to get out and stretch your legs for a while." I turned my gaze briefly to meet his before swiveling my head to look at Frank's still motionless form.

"I can't. I have to stay here and make sure Gerard doesn't come back." When I'd gone back to the parade, leaving Frank in the hospital, Gerard had been furious. He was shouting at Ray, venting all his frustration on the poor man. 

_Ray's eyes met mine as I appeared and Gerard turned his to glare at me, before stalking off in the opposite direction, heading further into the dilapidated city that was the parade's home. Ray came up to me, watching Gerard stalk off._

_"He's really pissed off. Any idea why?" I looked to Ray and nodded._

_"He wants Frank to join us." Ray's eyes got wider and he looked back to Gerard then back to me._

_"Little Frankie? WHY THE HELL WOULD HE WANT THAT!? Hasn't the poor kid been through enough?" He sighed looking down at his feet. "Frank didn't deserve what happened to him that night and he sure as hell doesn't deserve to die, so why Mikey? What will that get him in return?" I sighed and sat down on the edge of the float, looking up at the ashen sky._

_"Power, enough to bring back someone we lost…or at least he thinks. As much as I would love to see her again, its not right to bring back someone that is at peace." Ray thought for a moment then mouthed an 'oh' and sat down beside me. He'd learned a bit of our past from Gerard, not too much, but enough to know who we were talking about._

_"We're not going to let that happen are we?" His look was stern and I smirked._

_"No, no we're not."_

[Frank's P.O.V.]

"Okay, sit up slowly sweetie." The nurse taking care of me helped me sit up right in the bed, having woken up just two minutes ago my head was spinning from lying horizontally for so long. I looked around the room before my heart started racing, remembering what I'd seen that had caused me to pass out. My eyes wheeled around the room but there was no sign of anyone dressed in a black parade uniform. I took deep breaths trying to steady myself, trying to convince myself that what'd I'd seen was a figment of my imagination as a result of my body starting to shut down before passing out. I'd managed to relax myself to the point of dozing off when Dr. Costa walked in. 

"Frank! You're awake!" He sat down beside me on the bed, smiling widely. "You scared us! Two weeks! Its been two weeks since you blacked out! Gave me a heart attack!" He smiled but as soon as the words escaped him his face fell. My eyes went wide. 

"Gramps! Is he okay?!" Dr. Costa didn't answer, didn't have to with the expression on his face. My fingers clenched the blankets and through them my hospital gown, my body started trembling and I turned my gaze upwards towards the ceiling, tilting my head back in a sad attempt at holding back the tears that fought their way from my eyes. It was useless though, they streamed down the sides of my face and I started letting out choked sobs, my chest heaving with each one. Costa wrapped his arms around me and I could feel his tears soak the shoulder of the hospital gown. 

"I'm so sorry Frank." He whispered out and I just sobbed harder, clutching the blankets in the palms of my hands, my nails digging into my skin through them. 

"Were you w-with h-him when he…" I couldn't finish the sentence, couldn't bring myself to say the word. He shook his head no and sat back a little, brushing his damp cheeks with the sleeve of his scrubs. 

"No, I was here with you and Mikey." His eyes bore into mine at the moment, as if waiting for something to happen. Mikey, he'd known and he hadn't told me and then Gerard...

"Gerard…Mikey…they…they were…" The last image in my head of Mikey holding Gerard back and both of them looking distinctively different than I'd ever seen them, the black uniforms with the familiar silver accents and Gerard's snow white hair. My heart lept in my throat and Costa's hand pressed against my chest, forcing me to lay back on the bed, not realizing I'd shot bolt upright at the realization. "That…did it…"

"Yeah, Frank. It happened." The familiar voice emanated from the corner of the room, my eyes flicked right to it and my heart flew up into my throat. 

"No…no…no you can't…you can't be here! You died! You're dead!" I screamed at the man standing in the corner, I knew him all too well, admired him when I was younger. 

"I am and I'm not all at once, but its nice to see you again little Frankie." 

"Mr. Toro…" A smiled spread across his face, just as friendly looking as I remembered it, but my heart was racing and I was more than a little freaked out. He took a step towards me and it took all my power not to scream. He's dead! He died! He can't be here! I looked to Mr. Costa who only smiled up at Toro before quietly leaving the room, leaving me alone with him. I felt the bed dip down as he sat down on the edge of it. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a white t-shirt, with ratted tennis shoes on. Just how I remembered him. "How are you...here?" I choked out, having moved to the edge of the bed, as far from him as I could get. 

"Mikey sent me, told me it'd be better if I came to see you." His smiled hadnt faltered, he didn't look upset that I was scrambling farther away from him on the bed. 

"Are you…one of them?" I sputtered, my heart racing a mile a minute, threatening to send me back into another black out if I was pressed any further. 

"Calm down Frank, please…your body can't handle the strain your hyperventilating puts you through. Yes, I am one of them…one of The Black Parade's musicians." I took deep breaths, watching him, studying him closely, my entire body was tensed in preparation for his clothes to change like their's had, for him to look different, but nothing happened. He just kept smiling at me, a genuine look of happiness on his face. 

"They're real?" I whispered and he nodded, his hands clasping each other and he averted his gaze for just seconds before looking back at me and smiling. I started to relax, feeling safer with each passing moment that he sat there, looking like his old self. 

"Yeah, they are. Good reason for Mikey's obsession isn't it?" He chuckled and I just nodded, thinking about every time that Mikey had brought them up, his immortality, ability to read minds, and his change in appearance that day. "I've missed you Frank." He smiled and looked as if he wanted to lean forward and hug me but made no move to. My mom and I were the last people to see this exuberant man, with the crazy 'fro and passion for guitar, alive. We were the last ones to see him smile and now, I was looking into is eyes once again, seeing just as much happiness in them. I moved back towards the middle of the bed, getting closer to him at which he just smiled even more, happy that I was calming down. "Hey, I have a question." He blurted out and I just stared at him. What could a dead man possibly want to ask me? "Why the hell did you stop playing!?" He punched me lightly in the shoulder, making a stern expression that quickly melted into a smile and a chuckle. 

"I…I uh…" I looked to my right arm, shuddering at the realization that it was out there in the open, available for anyone that walked in to see. He didn't look down but I felt the tips of his fingers on my arm, an icy feeling washed up all the way to the top of my shoulder and quickly dissipate, his gaze flicked down and he smirked. 

"What about it?" He looked at me and I just raised a quizzical eyebrow before looking down. My eyes flew open as I looked at my arm, the marred flesh was gone…the skin covering it looked perfect, new, unscathed and just as pale as the rest of my body. I flexed my fingers, the slight stiffness in them as well as the rest of my arm was gone. I looked up to him and he just laughed at my open mouthed expression. 

"Did you just…" 

"I have that ability sometimes, so long as someone deserves it. I can't really do much else to help, your skin is still repairing itself, I just sped the process up by about a thousand times." He smiled and I just marveled at the smooth feeling of my skin, it looked as if nothing had ever happened. The ugly reminder of my parents' death, of that whole night, was gone. I looked back to Mr. Toro and leaned forwards, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and crying into the fabric of his t-shirt. He was still for a moment before his arms wrapped around me and he hugged me tight. 

"Thank you Mr.-" 

"Frankie, I told you to call me Ray." He chuckled and I smiled into his shirt. 

"Thank you Ray…I missed you too."


	18. Chapter 18

I'm not going to lie and say the next few hours weren't weird. Though I loved seeing Mr.- Ray again, it was hard to really wrap my mind around the fact that he was here, that the marred flesh of my arm was now perfectly smooth, as if that night had never happened. I wish. For a good while we sat in silence, our gazes occasionally meeting as I slowly got my clothes gathered up before heading to the bathroom, wanting very much to be out of the ridiculous hospital gown with the all too revealing backside. 

"Uh well…I'm gonna go change…" I looked at Ray and he nodded but when I kept staring he cocked his head. 

"You okay?" He asked, standing up and moving closer to me. 

"Yeah…I just feel like if I turn my back you're going to disappear, like this was all a dream or something." I sighed, fiddling with the little hole in the collar of my t-shirt on the top of my clothing pile. I heard him chuckle lightly and looked back up at him. 

"I won't disappear. I'll be right here when you're done. I promise." I smiled lightly and nodded, grabbing up the pile of clothes and turning to head into the adjoining bathroom, holding the back of the gown closed with my other hand. Tossing the pile on the counter, my eyes flicked to the mirror instantaneously, looking at the short teen that stood on the other side. His hair was messy, hanging in his face and sticking out in all directions, his eyes were dark and partially lidded like he hadn't slept in forever, but what really frightened me was how painfully thin he was. His cheekbones were prominent and though he wasn't thin to the point where it was disturbing to look at, he was still way under weight. I had a hard time believing that the boy in the mirror was me. I never noticed any of this before, how haggard I really looked, how thin I was getting…how come no one said anything? Mikey, my grandfather, hell Dr. Costa should have at least hinted at it! Then again, up until recently I never really paid attention to much of what anyone was saying…maybe they had said something and I just didn't listen. Sighing, I shrugged out of the hospital gown, looking at myself in the mirror, taking a deep breath and being slightly disturbed when my ribs really showed through as I inhaled. My eyes flicked away from the mirror, not really wanting to see anymore and landed on the shower. Showering would be nice, probably help the tangled mess of hair issue too. My hand reached out and touched the cold steel of the shower handle and flipped it on. I watched as the room filled with steam before actually stepping into the shower, jumping as the hot water seared my skin momentarily before becoming relaxing. My muscles loosened up, not having realized how tight they had been, I relaxed against the tile wall, resting my head against the cool surface as the hot water cascaded down my back. 

It took me twenty minutes to get out of the bathroom, most of it being spent just standing under the hot water and letting my mind go blank. Now though, as I looked at myself in the mirror again, all the things that had happened flooded back into my mind and I realized that the way I looked reflected the way I had felt ever since that night…broken. I'd let it run my life and this is where it lead, with multiple trips to the hospitals cause of my blackouts and a frail, almost sickly looking body. No wonder people looked away from me or never even looked at me…I literally looked like I was going to fall apart. With a heavy sigh, I pulled up the hood on my grey hoodie and exited the bathroom, seeing Ray enthralled by the tiny television in the room. I walked over and looked up at it, watching as a woman spoke hysterically to a reporter about someone breaking and entering her home. It wasn't anything different, practically a daily occurrence here, but Ray was wrapped up in it. 

"Ray?" I whispered and his eyes snapped to me, a smile crossing his face. 

"Sorry, got a little absorbed…been a while since I watched TV. Rots your brain though, stay with guitar, way better for you." I smirked and he laughed lightly, standing up and stretching. He was so normal looking, and I had to ask myself why I thought he should look any different. I mean, Mikey looked normal and so did Gerard, why should I expect anything different? "So…what do you wanna do?" I snapped out of my thoughts and raised an eyebrow at his question. 

"Huh? You…you're gonna stay? Hang around?" It was Ray's turn to raise an eyebrow at me. 

"Uh…yeah, well…and no offense, but…" Ray rubbed the back of his head like he was nervous of my reaction to what he was about to say. 

"But…?" 

"You don't really have anyone else…anymore…except Mikey and I…" He whispered and I mouthed "oh," frowning at the sad fact that what he was saying was true. I didn't have anyone anymore…family wise that is. I was alone in that aspect. "Frank I'm sorry…I shouldn't have-" 

"It's fine…just…hard to think that I'm really alone…that my grandfather is gone…" I exhaled deeply, clutching the hem of my hoodie in my hand momentarily till I knew I could hold off the tears that threatened to build up. 

"I'm sorry, but…he's alright you know? I mean…he died peacefully at least…" Ray's gaze shot downwards and I instantly knew what he meant. My grandfather died of natural causes whereas Ray was murdered, killed because someone deemed his life unimportant. 

"Yeah…he did…" Murmuring, my feet turned my body away from him and I quickly brushed the single tear, that wormed its way out, off of my face. Ray's shoes tapped against the linoleum floor as he approached, I felt his hand land lightly on my shoulder before disappearing. I turned to look at him and saw he was partially turned, looking at something behind him. I moved slightly to see and my eyes widened a bit. 

"Mikey…" I breathed. He was standing in the corner, wearing the same black parade outfit I'd last seen him in, my breathing started to accelerate just looking at that silver lined jacket, but it almost came to a halt when I noticed the red blood stains adorning the front of it. I followed the trail up to his face, seeing a split lip and a black eye. "Shit Mikey…what happened?" I moved forwards despite the chill that ran up my spine. 

"Its fine." He shook his head, wiping away the blood that trickled down his chin from his mouth, obviously having been hit in the jaw a few times. 

"What happened?" Ray came up behind me, reached out and touched the wound on Mikey's lip lightly with the end of his finger, causing Mikes to flinch just a little before turning his eyes away. I marveled as the cut closed up rapidly and disappeared completely. 

"Gerard's still pissed, we'll leave it at that." Mikey snapped back at him before groaning and rubbing his eyes, looking back at Ray. "Sorry…just frustrated right now…thank you for healing me by the way…" Toro just nodded, smiling lightly. Mikey's gaze flicked to me and I jumped a little, not entirely used to the change in look yet. A smiled danced across his face for a brief second and suddenly his clothes were changing, forming back into one of the many outfits he'd normally wear. Black skinny jeans took the place of the silver sided ones, a black and white striped long sleeved shirt replaced the jacket. It was weird, watching his clothes shift and change colors. I didn't realized his hair had changed as well until I looked up at his face and he was adjusting a black beanie that now rested on top of his lighter brown hair. 

"Umm…that was…different…" I shuddered a little, even though he looked normal to me now...just knowing what lied underneath frightened me, even though I was beginning to trust Ray with what he was, Mikey had lied to me, had hidden this from me and I guess I was having a harder time trusting him. 

"Yeah…sorry…about earlier…I didn't know Gerard was going to do that…" Mikey frowned and looked down at the ground, wringing his hands as he did. He was just as nervous as I was, was he afraid of me? No, why would he be? He's some harbinger of death, there's no way he'd be afraid of anything I did. Unless he was afraid of my reaction. 

"It's…forget it…" That was all I could say about it right then. What else could I say? I couldn't say that I was alright with it, that what happened didn't scare me so bad that I blacked out. Shoving my hands down into my hoodie pocket, I looked at the floor, suddenly taking more interest in my tattered shoes than the silence of the room. 

"Okay, this is ridiculous…can we just act like nothing happened for a little while? I'm dying to hear Frank pick that guitar back up and play something." My eyes darted up to see Ray smiling at me and Mikey somewhat grinning at him. 

"I haven't played in years though…I don't remember anything." I whispered and he shook his head. 

"You'll remember, it comes naturally to you, always did." He smiled and I smirked back at him. Ray's smiles were infectious, whenever he was happy you couldn't resist being happy as well…its just how he was…is. I couldn't help but wonder how he could be happy through everything that's happened though. How could someone be so happy even in death? He was murdered…there had to be some pent up anger towards the ones who did it, but I couldn't find any evidence of that in his bright and cheery face.

We left the hospital after Dr. Costa checked me out, heading out to Mikey's car and getting in. I settled in the backseat and just watched as Ray looked out the window, pointing at new buildings, well new to him. 

"So much has changed since I died." His voice was a whisper, but in the small car he might as well have been talking out loud. Shifting in his seat, he looked back at me. "Is my studio still there?" 

"Yeah, its been abandoned ever since you…passed." He smiled just a little and turned back to the window, absorbed in watching the world pass by outside until we pulled up to my house. The three of us climbed out of the car and headed up to the door. Seeing the house…it was harder than I thought. The last time I was here…my grandfather was alive, sitting on the couch and smiling at me. Stepping back into that door, was easily near the top of my list of worst things I'd ever done.


	19. Chapter 19

"Your Grandfather loved holding on to memories didn't he?" I glanced back at Mr.- that's going to take some time getting used to, I meant Ray. He was standing in front of my grandfather's glass display case on the wall, filled to the brim with little knick knacks and family photos, most of them were of me at various stages in my life. 

"Yeah." I whispered in response, not really able to bring myself to say much about my Grandfather without feeling the well of tears start forming behind my eyes. Having clearly noticed my discomfort talking about my Grandfather, Ray quickly moved away from the case, heading towards the stairs. I followed him up to my room and watched Ray walk around, looking at the various knick-knacks lining my shelves, before his gaze turned to my guitar, resting in the corner and collecting dust. 

"Man…little dusty isn't it?" A smirk rose in the corner of his mouth as he reached down and picked up the dirty white guitar, shifting to sit down on the end of the bed with it, his fingers running up the grimy strings, having not changed them in all the years I had it, they'd collected various food particles in the little grooves. "And dirty…" Ray gagged and grinned at me as I rolled my eyes. "Seriously…you really gave up? On playing and…sorry to sound harsh but…you gave up on yourself too…your whole life! Come on Frank…I know your mom and dad taught you better than that…" Tears came to my eyes at Ray's words, my fists balled at my sides.

"I don't want to talk about this right now." I whispered angrily and he just sighed and shook his head. 

"We have to talk about it Frank. I don't want to be so rude but…this is the best time to talk about it, get everything over with now so you can move on easier. I got rid of the scar on your arm so I could help you forget, not so you could mope around like this. I understand that you just lost your grandfather but…I know for a fact he doesn't like that you're wasting time." My eyes narrowed looking at Ray, my nails dug uncomfortably into the palms of my hands. 

"I can't just move on that easily!" I growled and Ray just frowned, not looking angry, just…upset. 

"Yes you can Frank. You're just forcing yourself to hold on to it. He died peacefully! You couldn't ask for a better way to go!" Ray sounded hurt and I knew why. I was moping over my Grandfather's death whereas hardly anyone had cried over his murder. I moped a little when I found out he was dead but I'd let him go far more easily than I was with my Grandfather. Ray was hurt by it, I could see it in his eyes. He had been like an Uncle to me when I was little, always got me presents for my birthday and Christmas and treated me like family…and I'd essentially thrown him out the door when he was killed. Ray sighed heavily and turned his attention back to the guitar, plucking at the strings a little, tuning it until it sounded like an actual guitar rather than a dying animal. 

"I'm sorry…I get a little frustrated sometimes…" He whispered and I sighed, unclenching my fingers and sitting down beside him. I could hear him taking deep breaths to keep himself calm. 

"I'm sorry Ray…I'm sorry that I didn't mourn you longer…I'm so sorry…" Tears rolled down my cheeks and I heard him exhale deeply before I felt his arms wrap around me. 

"Don't worry about it Frank…its okay…I'm alright…I get to hang out with you again, though you're older now and I don't have to watch my language around you or make sure I talk in child terms." He laughed and I smiled lightly. "Lets, starts over in a sense. Hi, I'm Ray Toro." I laughed and he smiled at me, releasing me from his grasp, holding his hand out. I took his hand, feeling the callouses on his fingers from years of playing guitar. 

"Frank Iero." We both smiled and shook hands. I glanced to Mikey and saw he was smiling lightly, leaning in the corner of my room, the darkness of the room seemed to swarm around him and pull him in. I started to grow a little nervous thinking about how his brother had shown up and was clouded in shadow just as Mikey was now. Mikey seemed to notice my nervousness and quickly stepped out of the corner and sat down beside Ray, smiling lightly at me. 

The next couple of months were kind of a blur. Ray and I started to rebuild our relationship as friends, not just teacher and student. He would wait for me when I got home, having decided to stay in my grandfather's house for now, and bombard me with questions about school and then proceed to lecture me on how I needed to play more guitar so he could play Metallica songs with me. I would just groan and mumble about how I needed to get my schoolwork down and didn't have time to play to which he would respond. "That's bullshit." I'd just roll my eyes and flop down on my bed, moan into the comforter and then lay there for an hour till he pushed me out of bed and told me to do my homework. It was good having him around, the house got eerily quiet when him and Mikey were off to…wherever the Black Parade resided. Today happened to be one of those days. 

I was sitting in my last class, mindless picking apart my eraser and throwing the little chunks at the empty chair in front of me where Mikes normally sat. Sighing heavily I moved to put my head down when the empty chair beside me pulled out and somebody sat down. I picked my head up and glanced out of the corner of my eyes at the chair's new occupant. It was a girl, brunette. She sighed heavily as she pulled out a notepad, looking awfully nervous for being in class. I didn't recognize her so maybe she was new? I sat back a little in my chair, glancing at her every few moments. I had to admit…she was attractive. I smiled lightly and her eyes suddenly flicked and met mine, locking with them for just a moment before she returned her gaze to her notepad, a small blush creeping over her cheeks. Something about her made me smile wider and also made me shyer, I copied her movements, blocking the side of my face to hide the blush I could feel spreading across my own cheeks. 

It took twenty minutes of sneaking glances at her for her to finally look back at me, an adorable smile adorning her face. She opened her mouth to speak but she was nervous, I could tell instantly and I wasn't much better. 

"Uuhh…" She cleared her throat. "H-Hi…I'm Jamia…" she said as she held her slender hand out towards me, shaking just a little. "I'm new here." She squeaked and I smiled just a bit wider at how cute her voice was.

"Hi, I'm Frank."


	20. Chapter 20

"Frank. Frank wake up! Come on you little punk wake up!" I groaned at the voice filtering into my ears, slowly opening my eyes just to see a blurry outline of a face framed by a huge fluffy mass of hair. 

"Ungh…what?" I sat up and rubbed my eyes groggily. 

"You're late for school." Ray sat down on the edge of my bed beside me and ruffled my hair playfully, to which I just groaned louder. "Oh come on its not that bad." 

"It's school…how could it get any worse than that?" My eyes were barely able to remain open as I struggled to wake up. 

"Umm, well lets see…Gerard could be trying to kill you right now to join our merry band of undead people? Mikey could be scolding you for not being dressed already? Not having a cute girl in your class?" I blushed profusely at the last comment and Ray snorted, laughing softly. 

"Oh shut up! I should never have told you about her." 

"You didn't just tell me about her, you GUSHED like a teenage girl." Ray giggled and I play slapped his arm. "Oh ouch! That hurt terribly! Say you're sorry! Say it!" I laughed and he joined me. Standing up, I went over to my dresser and started sifting through the menagerie of shirts I'd collected over the years, getting frustrated as I couldn't find anything that I felt was nice looking enough to impress Jamia. Impress. Jamia. What the hell am I thinking!? She won't care what I'm wearing! Will she? I glanced over at Ray on the bed and sighed. 

"I'm probably going to regret asking, but…how do I impress her? She seems so laid back but she probably wants to be impressed…right?" Ray smirked and shook his head.

"Frank, she will be impressed if you just be yourself. That's what most girls seem to like in the long run, someone who's not afraid to be himself." Ray stood up and reached into my drawer and dug out an old Misfits shirt that was laying on the very bottom of the pile. 

"Seriously? That's so old…its got little holes in the hem…its kind of ratty." Ray just raised and eyebrow and smirked at me. 

"That's the point Frank, you love this shirt, that's why its so worn. She'll see that and know you aren't afraid to like what you like. Just trust me on this okay?" I was reluctant to agree with Ray, but I did love that shirt so I gave in for comfort rather than to impress Jamia. I picked out my jeans though, some newer grey skinny jeans I'd gotten to replace the hole ridden ones I'd worn till they fell apart. Shoes were simple, given the fact that I only had two pairs. I slipped my black converse on and went to the bathroom, Ray following hot on my heels. 

"Seriously? You're going to follow me to the bathroom? I have to pee you know…" Ray smirked. 

"No you don't, you just want to gussy yourself up for your girlfriend. I'm not letting you do anything different than you normally do." Ray was awfully smug looking as I sighed in defeat and let him follow me to the bathroom and watch as I brushed my hair, commenting that I didn't ever brush it back before and forced me to brush it just off to the side like I usually did. "There! You look great!" He perked up and then pushed me out of the bathroom before I could do anything more to make myself look any different. 

"You know, you're really starting to piss me off Ray…besides…she's not my girlfriend" 

"Well if that's what it takes to get you to be yourself for your little lady then that's what I'll do." He laughed. "She will be so long as you're yourself." 

"Myself isn't that attractive." I countered and he groaned and shoved me forwards. Grabbing my backpack, I ran around the kitchen in an effort to scrounge up some breakfast before running back upstairs to brush my teeth and be stopped by Ray before I tried to fix my hair again. 

"Out! Go to school!" He laughed and pushed me outside. I froze up when Mikey was sitting on the stairs leading off the porch. He didn't look good today, looked a little pale actually, well…more so than usual. 

"Mikey?" He turned and smiled weakly at me. 

"Hey Frank…ready to go to school?" I nodded and he stood, walking down with me to my car. I got in the driver's seat and threw my backpack in the back. I paused when I glanced over at Mikey in the passenger seat. He was leaning his head against the window with his eyes closed. 

"What's wrong with you today?" I asked and he just looked at me and smiled weakly. 

"Its just…a bad day for me. No good memories came from this day." I looked at him questioningly and he sighed softly. "I died today Frank…Gerard and I were murdered this day…and it still feels like it was yesterday that I could just exist and not worry about…all that I have to worry about now. Not have to deal with death dealing…with collecting lost souls…when I could just be me." I looked down, instantly regretting asking him. 

"I'm sorry…"

"It's not your fault Frank, don't worry about it. Its really okay, I'm mostly over it, I just over think it in the morning but I'm fine…really." He smiled and I nodded, knowing he wasn't fine by the look in his eye but I knew he just wanted the subject to be dropped. I didn't ask him anymore about it, we actually didn't talk at all on the ride to school. Once we were there it wasn't much different. He only told me that he was going to go to the bathroom and just disappear for a little while, which made me feel even worse for asking him what was wrong. He just disappeared off to the Parade and I didn't see him in any of our classes. I guess he just needed his time, but I wondered if Gerard was feeling the same way or if he was still planning my demise. 

All thoughts vanished when I got to my last class though. My eyes immediately landed on her. On Jamia. Sitting at her desk, nervously filling out her school planner with a list of assignments to do. I gulped and headed to my seat, right beside her. I noticed she slammed her planner shut almost immediately and a cute blush spread across her cheeks. I felt my own cheeks get warm as I blushed for no reason. Our eyes met and I smiled and she smiled back. 

"Hello again." I said softly, my voice almost cracking with nervousness. 

"H-Hi…" She squeaked in her cute little voice. "W-was there homework last night?" 

"Uhh…I don't know was there?" It wasn't really the conversation I wanted to have with her but with both of our nervousness, it was the easiest thing we could talk about. 

"I don't know." She laughed quietly and I relished in her laughter, giggling my weird little nervous giggle, which elicited more giggles from both of us. 

"S-sorry my laugh is kinda freakish." I chuckled nervously and she just smiled. 

"I think its cute." She said and her eyes flew wide, like she hadn't meant to say that out loud. "Uuuhhh….I…I umm…" Jamia scrambled to try and recover but I helped her out quickly. 

"I think your laugh is cute too." I spewed out before I could stop myself. It felt good to say it though. She did have a cute laugh after all. She blushed and I smiled softly. 

"I like your shirt…Misfits…I listen to them a lot." I smiled at her. She liked the Misfits. Awesome! 

"Thanks…they're cool…I've had this shirt forever…its almost on its last leg." I laughed nervously again and she smiled. So far this was going somewhat well, our conversation wasn't really getting anywhere but at least we were talking to each other. The more we talked, the easier it got though. I learned that she came from a nice family who were generally supportive of her decisions, she loved a variety of music that, for the most part, I agreed with, and her taste of movies was even better. Tim Burton was the shit after all. The more she talked…the more I think I fell in love with her. I left school with a smile on my face and a new number in my phonebook. Jamia Nestor…Tim Burton enthusiast and quite possibly the cutest girl on Earth. 

I smiled and went to my car, getting in and driving off. I was almost home when it happened. A truck swerved out in front of me, out of fucking nowhere, and the last things I saw were the nose of my car crumpling up towards me and a flash of white hair.


	21. Chapter 21

[Mikey’s P.O.V]

It’s maddening. The slow, steady beeping of the machine is driving me crazy. I know it’s letting me and everyone else here know that he’s alive still, that he hasn’t passed yet, but I’d rather see him awake. I’d rather see those hazel eyes open and see his chest rise and fall with each breath on its own. Frank is destroyed physically. The doctors say he will recover if he wakes up, but its hard to believe with his current state of being. Six ribs are shattered, both arms broken in multiple places. He has a fractured skull and a broken right leg, his left was popped out of it socket in his pelvis. There are lacerations covered with bright white bandages all over the places that aren’t covered in casts, and its all his fault. Gerard’s. I am going to kill him. I knew it was his work the second I got to the accident. The moment I felt Frank’s life flicker I was there, wrenching him from the crumpled up tin can that was the car we rode in just yesterday, no…a week ago. It’s been a week now, and Frank has shown no signs of waking. He remains a vegetable and I can’t stand it. I’d be ripping my brother’s throat out if he were anywhere to be found, but he’s vanished. The parade float is starting to collect dust in our little world. I’ve just begun to realize how long its been since we’ve actually done our job, yet new people keep showing up in our world. It makes me wonder what Gerard has been up to when he isn’t trying to murder our best friend’s son. Thinking about that, I can’t remember the last song we played as a band. As a parade. It used to be a daily occurrence and now that has all but evaporated as well. He’s up to something. 

“Does he live?” A soft voice emanates from behind me and I shoot up out of my chair beside Frank’s bed. For the first time in a while, I’m startled by something. It’s not so easy to sneak up on us after all, we’re normally the ones frightening other people. I turn and look at the woman standing in the corner. She’s completely covered from head to toe. Her hair bushes out on either side of her head, teased out to the sides. Her garb is that of what I think a woman would wear in the Victorian era. What intrigues me the most though is the gask mask covering her entire face, just barely allowing visibility of her eyes through the dark lenses. “Does he live?” She repeats softly, as if speaking is hard for her. I nod, starting to recognize her as the dark figure that always used to trail behind the parade and walk as if she were in her own world, separate from ours. 

“He does. Barely. This is Gerard’s doing. Uncalled for.” I glare down at the floor. “If you see him. Tell me. It is not his time yet he’s trying to kill him for his own selfish purposes.” She doesn’t even nod, just stares at me through the dark lenses of the mask, then she whispers again.

“Don’t let him be hurt. I don’t want to see him with the Parade.” She turns and disappears into the wall. I stare at the now empty corner, wondering what just happened. So far as I can recall, I’ve never seen a non-band member leave the Parade…I didn’t think it was possible, but maybe they just had no reason to leave like we did. Her words flow through my head repeatedly and I’m confused by them, but the slow beeping quickly draws my attention again. I turn to the bed and look at the broken body occupying it. Sighing heavily, I sit back down in the chair and watch Frank quietly as I have for the past week. 

Another week passes and still not a sign of life from Frank, other than the machine controlled breathing. Dr. Costa was growing more concerned by the minute, and I was growing nervous as well. I knew they’d pull the plug soon. Its what doctors do when they’re sure a patient won’t be revived. I’ve already heard the nurses discussing the “veggie in room 124.” It sickens me that they just don’t care about such a young life. To be honest though, Frank doesn’t look so good. His body is pale, his wounds are slowly healing, the dark rings around his eyes show the toll this is taking on him. Its…heart breaking. And its my bastard brother’s fault, who by the way still hasn’t shown his damned face. There’s someone at the door, someone new. My eyes flick to the white door as soon as it starts to click open. A young girl enters, Frank’s age, a face I’m familiar with. Jamia. She doesn’t even look at me, her eyes go right to Frank’s body and I can see the sadness well in her eyes. She hardly knows him, yet I can sense the growing affection this girl has towards him. I smile weakly, probably only coming out as a forced grimace. She doesn’t even try, she just lets the first few tears dribble down her cheeks and makes her way to his bedside. 

“H-how is h-he?” She barely manages to get the words out. I don’t lie. 

“Not good. The…the doctors aren’t convinced he’ll be alive much longer.” Now I feel the familiar prickle of tears in my own eyes, but I manage to keep them at bay, or we’ll both become blubbering messes, and I can’t do that yet, or I’ll be admitting that I don’t think he’ll make it either. I have to hold on to the hope that those darkened eyelids will flutter open and everything will be alright. I’m afraid that Gerard might get what he wants, and I want to fight it as much as I can. I’ve even had Ray in a few times to try and heal him, but the effort just wipes Ray before he can make any progress. Too much damage to be fixed. Jamia cries now. This girl who’s hardly known him for two days is crying over him, visiting him in the hospital. I like her instantly, just for her already evident love for the love of my life’s son. 

“Isn’t th-there anything th-they can do!?” She looks at me, her eyes drowning in tears and makeup smearing as they roll down her face. I shake my head and she cries more.

“Th-they’ve done everything…its up to h-him now…” I can’t hold back my strong expression anymore. The tears roll freely down my cheeks as I squeeze his limp hand harder. “Th-they’re g-going to ask m-me to let them…g-give up on him…t-to let him go…but I c-can’t…” I admit to her. “I can’t…” 

“N-No! They c-can’t j-just give up on him! H-he…I’ve only knew him f-for two days before this! I…I want to know him more…I want…to have a chance with him…” She admits to me while looking down at his face and gently brushing a lock of his dark, matted hair from his face. 

“Y-You already do have a chance…he…he likes you…he told me all about you…and his friend Ray…he wanted to impress you…f-for you to like him…” I force the words out, hating that I’m making it sound like he’s doomed to die on us. That he’s already gone. She cries. I cry. We both weep for hours until we’re forced from the room. 

[Gerard’s P.O.V.]

The stage is set. I have everyone right where I want them. Mikey hasn’t left his side since the accident, so he’s oblivious to everything I’ve been doing, having made sure to not be present whenever he does decide to check on the Parade in search of me. Frank is a fucking vegetable wearing gaudy hospital garb and relying on a tube to do the work of breathing for him. He’s defenseless. Both him and Michael are at my mercy even now, though they obviously are not aware of it. And she’s there. The girl that I’ve recently learned has captured young Frank’s heart. How sweet…and pathetic. He throws himself fully at the first girl he meets and she is just as equally idiotic for the same reason, yet if she were to die…then Frank would be at my feet, begging for me to help him bring her back as well. If they were both to die…then it’d be icing on the cake. The real question is, who will Mikey save first? Linda’s precious son? Or the girl who most definitely would not return once dead, the key to Frank’s heart. Either way, I win. If he saves Frank and she dies…then Frank will be devastated, weaker than ever and I will have him in an instant. If he saves her, then Frank is with the Parade still, and I still win. I’ve set this up to be foolproof and so far all the little pawns fall nicely in their places. Even Ray has taken his place, sleeping away his efforts of revival. Bob has always been where he belongs, sitting behind the drum kit on the float, just waiting and following orders quietly. I like him. I smile, looking up at the hospital building where the three targets of my plan are sitting in one small little room, that just so happens to now be slowly filling with flammable fumes, undetected due to the fact that its completely odorless, a fact I made sure of. All it needs is a little spark, and the wire on the back of that breathing machine is slowly unraveling, slowly snapping around the cut that I made a week ago. Once it breaks, the room will go up in flames. And we will finally claim our full potential with Frank at our side. We will finally be able to do as we please, and more importantly, to bring her back. To bring sweet Linda back to us. And in forty-eight hours, we will welcome Frank to the family. 

_“So long to all my friends, every one of them met tragic ends…”_


	22. Chapter 22

[Mikey’s P.O.V.]

“AAAAAGGGGGHHHH!” Ray let out a defeated shout as he slumped away from the bed, hands sliding off of Frank’s chest and onto the edge of the bed as he sank down into the chair beside it. He breathed heavily and glanced between the floor and Frank’s face as he sucked air in to steady himself. “Damnit…” he cursed and shook his head. 

“Ray…ease up…you’re not going to be much help if you keep forcing yourself.” I whisper quietly and sigh, standing up and grabbing him a cup of water before sitting down again, arms folded, eyes locked on Frank’s face. 

“I can’t ‘ease up.’ What good are the powers I’ve been given if I can’t even heal his godamn wounds! I healed him before with little effort! Why is this so difficult for me now?!” I frowned, reluctant to bring up my sibling’s name up at all at the moment, but with a heavy sigh and a small amount of venom in my voice, I explained what I thought was the answer.

“It’s because of Gerard. He’s technically the leader of our little cursed group and we’re going against him. We aren’t…as effective I guess. At least that’s what I think it is. I haven’t been feeling well lately. Not as strong. Not as…useful. It could be that or because we haven’t been doing our job at all and this is the punishment.” It’s quiet for a few moments, just Ray’s heavy breathing and the steady beep of the machines break the silence. 

“I’m not leaving. Not until he does. Gerard can go fuck himself. He’s not getting to Frank again.” Ray had hatred equal to mine in those eyes. Frank was important to us all. He was our best friend’s son and Ray’s favorite student as a child, but to be honest he felt like he was all of our’s son. We all wanted to protect him from Gerard, even Bob as I’d come to notice the past few visits to the Parade. He’d developed a dark glare that was aimed at Gerard twenty-four seven. 

The door clicked, breaking the silence that was just beginning to settle in once again. Dr. Costa slowly shuffled in, the expression on his face was grim. He had bad news. I could tell. Standing up, he shook his head and motioned for me to sit back down but I couldn’t bring myself to. Anything you had to sit down for couldn’t be good. The doctor looked pale, his left hand was shaking slightly, but still clutching the manila folder in it tightly. Costa’s eyes looked over at Frank’s bed then flicked back to me, I could see the tears welling up in his eyes. I felt my own body start to tremble at this point, my hands hung limply at my sides and my lower lip started to quiver slightly as I tried to fight back the inevitable. The tears were already building in my eyes. Ray was staring blankly at Costa, frozen still like a statue.

“Wh-what…what is it?” I had to force the words out, my eyes searching his, desperately searching for any kind of hope. Costa looked…empty. Like everything he knew had just fallen apart in front of him.

“They…they want me to pull the plug. H-he has no family to decide his fate at this point and I’m the closest to him.” He looked at me. “The only one who’s really…alive at least. They want me to decide what to do with him.” A few tears started to roll down his cheeks. “Mikey…I can’t just pull the plug but…his last tests…they aren’t good. The damage to his body is just too severe and h-his o-organs…oh g-god…” At this point he really started to sob, dropping the manila folder to the floor as he brought his hands to his face. I felt completely numb. I didn’t know what to do, for I knew exactly what he was going to say. Frank’s body was failing him, it was falling apart and all we were doing was slowing it down temporarily. Ray’s eyes met mine, I could see the horror in his gaze upon realizing the same thing I already had. We barely had any time to process before we were joined by an all too cheery presence.

“Its about time.” My eyes instantly narrowed upon hearing the elated tone in his voice. I didn’t have to look at him to know there was a smug grin on his perfectly pale skin. Ray stood up, fists clenched at his sides and hatred in his eyes. I could see the rage building up inside of him. 

“WHAT’VE YOU DONE?!” Ray snapped, running across the room and slamming into Gerard, pinning him to the wall, fists gripping my brother’s jacket. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?” Gerard just smirked and put his hands up in defense.

“I’ve done nothing…yet.” My brother grinned darkly and grasped Ray’s hands, causing the curly headed man to scream in agony as Gerard’s power seeped into his skin and started reducing his hands to bone. “I suggest you let go.” Gerard hissed and shoved Ray aside, putting his hands into his pocket and sauntering towards me. “Look at you little brother. You hate me don’t you?” He beamed, eyes glinting from the utter glee he was no doubt feeling. 

“Why are you doing this?” I hissed under my breath. “He’s Linda’s son!” I clenched my hands tightly, wanting desperately to grab hold of him, but it would do me no good. I’d only end up like Ray, huddled in the corner, clutching my hands as they slowly and painfully healed. 

“How many times do I have to tell you this, dear brother. I DON’T CARE. I want HER back…he’s just the tool I have to use to get there. He’s supposed to die Michael! Can’t you see that?! We can’t unlock our power till he is with us! Why do you keep getting in the way?” He started to glare at me, I could tell his hands were clenching in his pockets. 

“Because it isn’t right!! We promised to protect him! Don’t you remember THAT!? WE PROMISED HER!! HE’S FAMILY GERARD!! WE HELPED HER RAISE HIM LIKE HE WAS OUR SON TOO! DON’T YOU REMEMBER ANY OF THAT!?” Screaming, I grabbed him anyways, shoving him back against the wall only to be thrown into the one on the other side seconds later. I choked when my back hit the wall, my head slamming into it seconds after. As I fell to the floor, I watched Gerard walk over, his boots scuffing the linoleum. Costa was on the ground now, thrown down by Gerard a split second after he’d dealt with me. 

“You’re right dear brother, we did promise her. But I don’t care about that anymore. She’s dead! I don’t hold any promises any more! YOU are the one who treated him like a son! YOU! NOT ME! ALL I EVER SAW IN HIM WAS THAT BASTARD THAT RAPED HER TO BEGIN WITH!” He slowly knelt down in front of me, hand grabbing my chin and forcing us to stare each other down. “I. Hate. Him. I hate him for being the one to survive that night, I hate him for letting her suffer through death while he got to live, and worst of all…I hate that she let him do it. This is all his fault Michael. Linda is gone because of him.” His grip tightened as his hand moved to my throat and clenched down. I could feel my throat starting to rot under his grasp and began sputtering as my lungs started to burn. I resisted the urge to cling to him and beg him to stop. Bearing the pain, I glared at him. 

“Th-then y-you’re n-not my b-brother a-anym-more.” I spat. For a brief moment, I saw a pained expression cross my brother’s face before he let my throat go and stood up. His fists clenched tightly at his sides and he glared down at me. I swore I could see tears build in his eyes. My throat burned as it slowly healed again. My arms and legs scrambled to get me back up onto my feet as he just stood there. “The brother I was raised w-with would n-never do anything like this!! He would’ve protected him!! All of this power we already have has changed you! Made you think you’re better than everyone else! NEWSFLASH GERARD! HE’S BETTER THAN ALL OF US! HE’S ALIVE!! WE’RE DEAD TOO! DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT!? EVEN IF WE BROUGHT HER BACK IT WOULDN’T MATTER BECAUSE WE’D STILL BE DEAD!!” Gerard moved to speak but was suddenly thrown into the wall from behind. Ray slammed into him, pinning him to it. Gerard thrashed, trying to get his hands onto Ray. Moving quickly, I grabbed the back of his wrists on his sleeves, careful to avoid skin contact, and pinned them to the wall, quickly using all the power I could to transport us all back to the parade. The dead scattered slightly as we suddenly appeared in the middle of them, running towards the float and slamming Gerard into the front of it.

“Come on Mikey!! Knock him out!” Ray shouted, struggling to keep Gerard pinned while I held his hands still. 

“Hold him tight so I can focus!!” Knocking out the living was one thing, they didn’t have the power we possessed, they didn’t stand a chance, but Gerard had more power than we did. As my power started to seep through his sleeve and into his skin, I could feel his start to fight back aggressively. I hissed as his body rejected my power violently, feeling every drop of his blood push my power back. “AGH!” I forced more of my power onto him. Admittedly, I could kill Gerard if I wanted to, and if he weren’t already dead. My powers were not limited to just forcing people to sleep, but the true extent was my abilities could turn disturbing rather quickly. Any disease known to man and even some unknown, my hands could force upon the body. Gerard was susceptible to these diseases, but only when they’re at their most extreme. It wasn’t easy taking each other down and we’d never really tried to do this level of damage to each other before. 

“C-come on Mikey! D-Do your fucking worst!” Gerard growled, still struggling against my grasp and Ray’s. I should’ve been hesitant to hurt my own brother. After all the problems we’d been through, both leading up to and after our deaths. He had always been there for me as a child and he’d been there for me for a long time after we’d died. I don’t know when he started changing. How long had he actually been thinking about taking Frank’s life after Linda died? The scary fact was, I wasn’t hesitating. I was trying to take him down to protect Frank. If that meant dipping into the pool of diseases I could force upon him, then I would. 

“Mikey! You better hurry up!! I can’t hold him forever!” Ray grunted and shoved more of his weight against Gerard. My brother wasn’t a very muscular person, but his power allowed him to be pretty strong when he needed to be. 

“Sorry Gerard.” My power seeped into his blood, finally slipping past the barrier he struggled to keep up. I forced the first disease I could think of upon him. Even though it wouldn’t kill him, it’d slow him down enough for us to protect Frank safely for a while. Malaria, the worst form of it. I could see it taking an effect on his body. His skin turned paler than normal, which is surprising it even could, the skin around his eyes darkened as if he’d been sick for weeks, and his breathing started turning a little ragged. I could feel the fever his body quickly started to work up and as he started to slump a little, Ray let go of him. I quickly released him as well, panting heavily after that much exertion of my power. 

“P-pathetic Michael…” Gerard grinned and coughed roughly. “This w-was too f-fucking easy…g-getting you a-away from h-him…” The grin didn’t leave his face and the little chuckle accompanying it was rather unsettling. I felt my entire face drop. Kneeling down, I forcefully gripped the front of his jacket. 

“What do you mean?! What did you do!?” 

“Kaboom.” He laughed before coughing roughly. I looked at Ray. His eyes were wide and his expression dumbstruck. 

“Frank…” He breathed, before quickly disappearing back to the world of the living. I was right on his heels. 

As soon as the world focused around me, all I could see was flames. Bright, yellow, orange flames roared out of the window of one of the rooms in the hospital. Ray stood there beside me, his eyes wide in horror before we both snapped out of it and transported ourselves into Frank’s room. Or what we could see of it. Black smoke and flames filled the room, I could feel my skin burn as soon as we entered. This can’t be happening. Flashes to the night we were murdered ran through my head, then flicked to the night I found Frank in the bathtub, and the love of my life and her husband slaughtered in their own home. All the days Frank spent in the hospital ran through my mind. This can’t be happening! It can’t. How could this be?!

“FRANK!!!!” Ray’s screams broke me out of my head. “FRANK! NO!” Ray ran into the thick flames and smoke. Running to the other side of the bed, or where I thought it was, I hit the end of it, the plastic was dripping, melting onto the floor beneath it. 

“FRANK!! FRANK!!” I screamed, searching the flame enveloped bed for his legs but I couldn’t find anything. I could see Ray just barely through the fire and smoke, he was looking just a frantic as I was. He wasn’t here, he wasn’t here! There’s no body! “RAY!! RAY HE’S NOT IN THE BED!! LOOK EVERYWHERE!” Did he wake up? Did they take him from the room?! I sunk to the floor, coughing as I inhaled smoke. I felt around under the bed, under the machines, the side tables, and chairs. Nothing. All I could see was black and orange. 

BOOM! A machine exploded, sending metal and plastic flying through the air. I could feel the little pieces slice my skin through my jacket, but I didn’t care. I would heal, but if Frank was somewhere in the room he definitely would not survive this much longer. 

“MIKEY!! MIKEY I CAN’T FIND HIM!!” Ray shouted from somewhere in the room. 

“HE’S NOT HERE RAY! I CAN’T FIND HIM!! CHECK THE BATHROOM!” I crawled along the floor, I could see just a little bit better under the smoke. I felt like such a child now. All the times we’d gone and taken dead people from burning buildings, transporting their souls. We’d walked through the flames and smoke like it wasn’t even there. Maybe it was the desperation, but I couldn’t be collected enough to be that casual now. This was Linda’s son, I had to find him. 

Spotting Ray through the cloud, I crawled up to him and we searched our way through the smoke till I grasped the metal handle on the door, singing my skin as I did. With a quick twist the door flew open and the flames went wild with the rush of air. It was empty, I could see that instantly in the brief moment we had before the smoke filled that room as well. 

“MIKEY!” I looked at Ray to see if he’d seen something but he was beside me, searching still. He hadn’t been the one to shout that time. My eyes widened. 

“FRANK!? IS THAT YOU!? FRANK!! WHERE ARE YOU!” I heard footsteps, rushing towards us and suddenly my arm was grabbed roughly and I was dragged backwards out of the smoke, out of the flames, and out of the room into the hall outside. Ray had been dragged beside me and quickly we were both standing. I couldn’t see anything, it was just as black in here as it was in the room, but I felt the hand on my arm pulling me forwards down the hall. 

“RAY! MIKEY! CHANGE YOUR LOOKS NOW!!” Disappointment. I knew the voice. It was Costa. 

“WHERE IS HE?! WHERE’S FRANK!?” I shouted, starting to see him now that the smoke was clearing the further we got from the room. Costa shot me a horrible look. 

“He’s out here...” He whispered as we ran. “Change your clothes! The other’s can’t see you like this!” Quickly we were both in normal clothes, back to how we would look out in public, back to my school look. We burst outside, hearing the coughs of others and seeing a large crowd of people outside the building in the parking lot. Sirens were screaming and fire trucks were racing up to the building. Costa pulled us to the back, there were people lying on gurney’s hooked up to small little portable IV’s and machines. There was Frank. I spotted him immediately, lying on a gurney, still out cold, hooked up only to a small IV. 

“Frank…” I walked over and then I realized something horrible. He was burned. Third degree burns covered his body, his skin had turned black in many places, the rest was bright red. His hair was gone, burned right off of his head, his hospital gown was almost fused into his skin. “F-Frank…F-Frank! FRANK NO!! PLEASE!!” I grasped the edge of his gurney, too afraid to touch his skin, too afraid that just touching him would turn him into nothing more than a pile of ash. 

“I’m s-so s-sorry Mikey…I’m s-so sorry…” I heard Costa crying behind me, but just barely. Ray was sobbing, standing on the otherside of the bed, his hands reaching out to touch Frank but never making contact. I could tell he wanted to heal him, but he was just as afraid of touching him as I was. 

“F-Frank! Frank p-please!” I sobbed, tears flooded my eyes and poured down my cheeks like waterfalls. “Frank!! F-Frank!! You c-can’t d-do this to me!! I w-was s-supposed t-to p-protect y-you! I w-was supposed to m-make s-sure you w-were alr-right…god p-please…p-please no…I sobbed ever harder, barely able to stay standing. My hands clutched the gurney as tightly as possible, knuckles white from gripping it so hard. “I’m s-so s-sorry…I’m s-so s-sorry…p-please…p-please…c-come back! W-wake u-up p-please…l-let me kn-know you’re th-there! P-please!!” I felt a trembling hand on my shoulder and looked at Costa, tears rolling down his cheeks. He just shook his head and I broke down, falling to the ground and sobbing. 

“H-he’s g-gone…h-he’s g-gone M-Mikey...th-this is all m-my f-fault…I sh-should’ve known…I sh-should’ve ch-checked…the w-wires…they s-sparked and…oh g-god the e-explosion…I did-didn’t g-get to him f-fast enough…I’m s-so sorry…” Costa sobbed just as hard as I was, slumping to his knees beside me. I couldn’t think, my mind just went blank as I sobbed ever harder. The flames still roared out of Frank’s room. He’s dead. I failed. Frank’s dead, and its all my fault. I didn’t protect him. I promised I would but I…I didn’t. I failed her. Linda, oh god Linda…I failed. 

“I’m s-so sorry.” I choked out, clencing my fists and cupping my hands over my eyes. “I’m s-so s-sorry…god I’m s-so s-sorry.” Gerard was dead. I was going to find a way to kill him off for good. 

[Gerard’s P.O.V.]

The disease was effective. I’d give my brother that, but it didn’t last very long at all. I was already recovering. He was so weak, I’d never realized before just how much he was. Smirking, I stood up and brushed my jacket and pants off, grinning still as I turned to face Bob on the stage. His eyes were like black coals, glaring darkly at me. 

“Don’t give me that. You have no right to be angry when all you’ve done is sit and watch.” I chuckle, watching as Bob looks down at his drum set and doesn’t look back up. I could feel the flames eating away at the room in the hospital. My plan had worked brilliantly, there was no way Frank would have survived, it had already exploded by the time Mikey would have made it there. There was a loud rumble throughout dilapidated city surrounding the float. The dead huddled closer to it as the rumble continued, all except the woman in the gas mask. She stood far out in front of the float, looking up at the sky. My gaze followed her’s and I watched as the cloud covered moon started to turn a fiery red before slowly returning to normal. As the red glow that coated the city faded, I felt…stronger. Like I’d just gained the full strength of a professional wrestler, or twenty. Grinning, I looked at Bob again, who was now looking at his hands, as if he was confused. He clenched and unclenched them before looking back up at me with an evil look. A wide grin spread from ear to ear on my face. I’d done it. He was dead. Frank was dead. This had to be it, this had to be the power gain I’d worked so hard for. I was only waiting for one more piece of evidence. And there it was. 

A swirling mass of black smoke curled up onto the float and spiraled around the only empty area of the float. I could see it taking shape, forming an outline. A guitar, sleek, black and shiny, was left in the black smoke’s wake. We were finished. Complete. Now I could bring her back. 

[Mikey’s P.O.V.]

It’d been two days. Two long, horrible, anguish filled days. We hadn’t moved, we hadn’t spoken, and we hadn’t even taken a breath since the night of the explosion. Since he died. Jamia had come yesterday upon hearing the news. For only knowing him for a short period of time, she seemed utterly devastated. His body was in the morgue now, laid under a pristine pale blue sheet and kept in a freezer like some piece of meat. I hated it. He needed to be buried, but Costa had to be the one to release his body now, and as much as I wish he would, I knew he had to do his job as a doctor and let the mortician make his final findings about Frank’s condition before his death. 

I looked over at Ray, who was slumped in the corner of the morgue, head resting on his knees. He hadn’t moved an inch since he first sat down, he was a stone statue, almost like a piece of decoration now. 

“Michael…” I glanced up slowly, seeing Costa standing above me. “I…I have to ask you to leave…the mortician…he has to work on Frank now…please…let him do his job so…so I can lay him to rest.” Nodding weakly, my legs slowly unfolded and I stood, watching Ray finally move again as he headed towards the door with me. The squeak of the freezer door and rattle of metal gurney wheels followed us out into the hall. We watched through the windows as his covered body was rolled by, and then disappeared out of sight. Costa remained in the morgue, he promised to tell us their findings. 

“Mikey…I hope…I hope he passed away…before he burned…” Ray whispered, and though I hated to even think about hoping he’d died beforehand, I hoped as well that he didn’t suffer through the fire either. 

[Costa’s P.O.V.]

The mortician was quiet, save for when he made a voice memo on his recorder. He was looking over Frank’s body, touching each area of black, charred skin. Frank’s skin crunched with the slightly brush, it was saddening. This boy that I helped come into this world, that I helped save when he arrived at the hospital the night his parents were murdered, and that I helped through every hospital visit, including the death of his last relative, was now lying on a metal table in front of me. Dead. The worst part was that he died here. While I was just down the hall, his room went up in flames and ended his life. He died in my care, and that hurt more than anything. 

“Dr. Costa?” I looked up at the mortician. “I’m ready to make the first incision.” Frowning, my lower lip started to tremble and my eyes watered, but I nodded and forced myself to watch as he grabbed his sterilized scalpel and began slicing into Frank’s skin. I turned away shortly after, unable to force myself to watch as the mortician cut him open even further, though I’d seen it a thousand times with other deceased patients. 

“Severe rib fractures, internal damage caused by excessive heat…” The mortician went on. I looked anywhere but back at the table holding Frank, seeing the full shelves of the freezer, dozens of bodies of all shapes and sizes ready to be gone over and then released to their loved ones to bury or cremate. Something flashed in the corner of my eye and suddenly the mortician behind me screamed and tools fell to the floor. I whipped around only to have my jaw drop in shock. There, standing next to his own body, wearing a black and silver parade style jacket, with the exception of black and white striped sleeves, and with darker hair and paler skin than ever before, was Frank. His hazel eyes were locked on mine and there was a look of sheer horror on his face. 

“C-Costa…” He whispered. I didn’t know what to do or say. He was here, but his body was also sliced open on the table in front of us. He was…like them. He was like Michael and Ray now. Those familiar hazel eyes flicked down to his own body laying on the table, cut wide open to reveal all his internal organs. The mortician was out cold on the floor at his feet. I could see a tear roll down his pale white face before dripping down into the insides of his mortal shell. 

“F-Frank…”

“What…is this…is this a dream? Wh-why am I cut open? Wh-what am I doing here?! Why is my body like this!?” His hand ran over the blacked skin and made a sickening crunch as the charred skin was shifted and actually started to slough off with the movement of his hand. He screamed and backed away, hands covering his mouth. I slowly walked around the table and reached out for him, flinching only a little when my skin made contact with his. Frank immediately slumped forwards into my grasp and I held him tight. My tears began rolling down into his pitch black hair, where they actually steamed a little upon contact with his scalp. He was warm, almost feverish. Then I realized what it meant for what he was now. The fire was what killed him. He was burned alive, the warmth I was feeling was the residual effects from how he died, a possible effect Mikey had told me about before. More tears poured down my cheeks upon this realization. He would have made it, if the explosion hadn’t occurred. He would had eventually pulled out of it, but now here he was, standing beside his own body, one of them. A member of The Black Parade. Gerard got what he wanted.


End file.
